■ d cc 
CL cc 

d CcC 

cc 

. CC 

c< 



<X C 

<_C CtC 



1 «c< 

< < . 
<<c < 

" CU<C 



41 < 

C-cC 






(iC c • 



'" "v 

- 



<= ° d 



4CL <£ C<. <CT<<* 

^ o> C* . 

L,. <■■< ('< * 



4d <2 
4T" *S 



cC 






— ^^ 


- 




=-■ 


<-. 


-*• 


< c 


«c 


<7 




< c_ 


«i 


<1 


« — i 


<: ci 


«CL 


t ■ ^_ 




c c 


«1 


<Z 


^^ ' 




^~ 




< <— 


<l 




»*~ 




^^ . 




-<zi <; 


«l 




^- < 


c C 


4cr_ 


< 

* 


^ — > 


< <_ 


<_i 


*— z-- 


^ — _. 


C r "Cl 


41- 


^C_- 


<CL. < - 


^ c 


. «c_ 


±<. ,<L: 


<L c 


§& 


■ <: 


«C 


<1. 


c d 


<: 


3 ' ■• <H 


dL ' 


< d 


«: 


d 


: 41, _ 






^~ 




1 < 




<r 


*- ^^ 




= <r 


«r < 



<CcV 

^C.«C 



^4 C< c 

& cccr 
J C<j£ 



4Cj <3 

^ Cc 



| LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 

i <&/«>/>. B..m ! 

9 - | 

| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, f 
_i< 



3d <^ 



sra 



<_OC «- j 

- c C 

C C 

c c: ^ 
~CL c ' 

c 1 






c ^ ' S c c V 

tie ( c 



«cc ' V c 
<SL<c * 

<s: c <a 
«. c 

c< * 



> <2 <£ - '< 

<c c c 

<X. c c 

C_ <:c <i C 

<_ «^c: < 

"C c 






: «>-><: c<- 
^Tc c c< 

^ C c Cc . 

^ ' c c cc 

? C c c< 
^ C i c< 

CC <; ..^ c , 
c < c « < <- , 



cc c^c < 

l - c C c c 



«r <X^ <. 



<Sg C<I ■ « 



<arc^^ t ;: "^< 



<r§ » c cct 
cc c cc< c 

c< .' c c ca C 
C *"C CjC< 
i -C C<-<. ■- 
c c <Z cc 
c c CL«c 



c "- g C <X C= 



ccc 
<& < 

<& c 



<r< c ccr 
<? c; <r:c < 



CL C 



3^ ^ 

ct CL 



ccc <LL 



<7<?c CI 



c: cc 

<1 < r, 



CL '« 



* c c c C- 

fc CL «^ 

*%£ co 

~vc c: cz <r 
^ cl cl c 
zc <r d <c 

LO CL CT CL 

clc cr c^ • 

crc c cz c_ 

d ' CL CL C— 

dTc C d . <L 

cr cl jC^ < 

%^ 
&£• 

<:- c 
cl c 



cc S= c *> 

JCC C^ f: C 

" CLC CL ^ < 

CLC *ZJ3&^ <^ 

CC ^T"CVC, ^ > 

C ■C <T CC <^ c .< 

cr s? ^ <e § l 

cc 

^T <3C 
C C C 
CI CLC CL. C^d 

= O ^> orcr:' 

<r c? «L_ C2 cl C^c? 

<L cr CL Cc<^- ' 
cclc cjr. 

^CL S CL 

C7CC Cg ^ <i V c 
cr.ee <r S^3^ Ac< 



c c CL 

C< C C 

</ • c ,•.<:■' 
Ci c <r 

C< ' c ■ CL 
<a . c CL 

C C 

c c -• <Z 

ci -c - <L 

ci c CL. 
C C <L ' 

c Cj«<L. 
c C 



< c c «c <; 






c c <: cc 

< " c < c c ' 

c $ fl c " 

SL, <^,^c V 

cc C 

- <r c C 



cLccCL 

CO CL 

cg c: 

cc * 



c c 

CL CL 

<rs c < 



<T cTcc 
<r c^ c • 

L C C 

._ <!■;- C 

. c:-c 

_ C?rc 
Cl c 

c c 



^c <LL <^C c ^ c 

:> cl cc < <^[ ■ £ , 
^c« <o <<j c c^c c 

Ci . ..c. cc c c c 
- cc cr cc c c c ■* 

: \ &3e -c s: L ^ 

-^ c c ^ c l <| :< ^ . 

- CLc d C<C ■ ■ . C C C ■ <. ^ 

L <c« c esc <r ca«^ <S£ S^ 

_ <s c «^T' cr cr 

«2KS^ ? ^ ? 

" <C c cc c: co 

"cccc <: c 

^^ ■ r" < *C ■ (C C C - r C 3- _^- 



ci'^c" «C 



<d 


CCC <£. ' 


-c; 


c: c c • 


c 


O c . c* 


rx 


CL C c C 


CC 


<rc « <: 



< < 

«.C C 

«rcL c 

c C c i 



dC Sfc^c 

I.. «acc c c 

CL OES3C CL <i< 



<rLc c 

re < 

"C c 
C C 



crc , 

cs o: 

CC CC1 

. CL ( ^ 



<r c < <i 
c <r ■ ■ c c 

f-- C C c C 

^ C C <r C 
CL' C C ^ C ' 



c <ac ^cr 
c: C 

: «T ! 



«*r cr 



c c 



^d c f - 

e < C C 



<C 



^OLCC^ 



;'iL • 

c C 

c cs 

c C 
C C 

c c ~ * 
cr cr 



OCT k 
<SLL CCL 



jese cr c 
<zs^ cl c 



J^T c c 



C c c 
c. 

C c "■ 



«c<LC. c 



<c-^^ccr 
<r<cC3Cc: 






]-,.- 



_ 



JULY FOURTH, 1761 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE 



Commemoration of % (©ne |)unkcMIj ^piiimarj 



CHARTER OF LEBANON, N. H., 

DELIVERED JULY FOURTH, 1861, 



BY REV. D. H. ALLEN, T) . JD 



Of Walnut Hills, Ohio. 



BOSTON: 

J. E. FARWELL & COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE CITY, 

No. 32 Conor ess Street'. 

18 6 2. 
33 v*y» 



Lebanon, December 8, 1861. 
Dr. Allen : 

Dear Sir : In behalf of the citizens of Lebanon, we return you their thanks 
for the interesting Historical Discourse, in commemoration of the One Hun- 
dredth Anniversary of the Charter of the Town, delivered July i, 1861 ; and 
respectfully request a copy for publication. 
Truly yours, 

CHARLES A. DOWNS, 

For the Committee of the Town. 



Walnut Hills, December 14, 1861. 
To the Committee of the Town of Lebanon : 

Gentlemen : In placing a copy of my Address in your hands for publica- 
tion, agreeably to your request, permit me to express the hope that you will 
add to it such notes as will compensate for the haste with which it was neces- 
sarily prepared, and make it a much more valuable history of the town. 
Very respectfully, 

Your fellow-townsman, 
C44 D.H.ALLEN. 



ADDRESS. 



Sons and Daughters of Lebanon : 

We may be allowed to congratulate each other to- 
day, that this, our national anniversary, so dear to 
every true American citizen ; and especially, that the 
Fourth of July, 1861, when the Congress of these 
United States meets on the most important business 
that ever called them together, a day destined, there- 
fore, to be historic among all the fourths of July, past 
and'future, that this day should be the centennial an- 
niversary of the charter of our town. 

We meet to-day, by the invitation of the " old folks 
at home," to exchange friendly greetings ; to look once 
more upon these beautiful green hills, and these grand 
old rocks ; to revive the memories of our common 
birthplace, and to take a rapid review of our family 
records for these hundred years past. 

It becomes me at the outset, in the name of all who 
are gathered here from abroad, to thank the good 
people of Lebanon, adopted as well as native, for the 
generous invitation which has called us back to the 
home of our childhood, and for the spirit with which 
they have prepared for this celebration. 

The idea of celebrating the settlement of New Eng- 
land towns, now that so many of them can number 
their years by the century, is worthy to be cherished. 



4 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

Nowhere else, either in our own or foreign lands, does 
the town sustain such relations to the state and na- 
tion. Nowhere else has the town system such a bearing 
upon the character and habits of the people as here. 
Out of New England, and especially in the South and 
West, except in localities which bear the New England 
stamp, the town or township is hardly known. It is 
lost in the county. Multitudes cannot tell the town- 
ship in which they live. They will speak of their na- 
tive county, seldom of their native town. 

The distinguished French political philosopher, De 
Tocqueville, who studied Democracy in America more 
thoroughly, and unfolded it more correctly than any 
other foreigner has ever done, did not fail to discover 
the immense influence of the town system of New Eng- 
land upon the character and government of the nation. 
He begins his examination of our entire political sys- 
tem with the township. 

His language is : [in New England] " The impulsion 
of political activity was given in the townships, and it 
may almost be said that each of them originally formed 
an independent nation. . . . They are subordinate 
to the State only in those interests which are common 
to all the people; they are independent in all that con- 
cerns themselves. . . . The sphere of the town 
is small indeed, and limited, but within that sphere its 
action is unrestrained. The New Englander is attach- 
ed to his township, not only because he was born in it, 
but because it constitutes a strong and free social body 
of which he is a member, whose government claims and 
deserves the exercise of his sagacity." 

This testimony of De Tocqueville is just. The gov- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 5 

eminent of a New England town is more nearly a pure 
democracy than can be found anywhere else under the 
sun. The " March meeting " is the annual session of 
this democratic legislature. The people come together 
to discuss, face to face, the measures to be adopted ; to 
assess taxes and vote appropriations ; to select and in- 
struct their officers. In these primary meetings of the 
people, the orators of New England, great and small, 
take their first lessons. Here are learned those princi- 
ples of freedom and self-government, which make the 
New Englander, politically, what he is, wherever he 
goes, the Democrat, in the true and proper sense of the 
term ; familiar with the foundations of the social struc- 
ture, and fit to be a citizen of a Republic, whose first 
principle is, that the will of the people is law. 

Aside, then, from all matters of a personal and so- 
cial concern ; aside from the cultivation of reverence for 
home and ancestry, in which, as a people, we Ameri- 
cans are sadly deficient, there are reasons enough for 
such a celebration in the very idea of a New England 
town. 

The period of the settlement which we are met to 
commemorate was one of deep interest in the history 
of our country. George the Third had just ascended 
the throne of England. The old French war, which 
resulted in giving England the possession of the Can- 
adas, was drawing to a close. England was then in 
possession of almost the entire North American conti- 
nent. Her arms had been successful in every part of 
the globe. She had risen to the very heights of mili- 
tary glory. And now the project of taxing the colo- 
nies which had been laid aside during the war, was 



h HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

revived. His Majesty's subjects in America had 
sacrificed a multitude of lives in fighting his battles, 
and thereby added immensely to his territories and 
his wealth. And why should they not also pay the 
bills? 

The Stamp Act was passed in 1765 ; and the years 
following were filled up with those acts of encroach- 
ment and oppression, which were destined to result 
very soon in terminating forever British rule in the 
largest and fairest portion of her North American pos- 
sessions. 

The immediate occasion of the settlement of this part 
of the Connecticut valley, was the French war. In 
the progress of that war, the New England troops had 
cut a road from the older settlements in the south part 
of the Province, through Charleston, then called No. 4, 
to Crownpoint. The soldiers in passing through this 
valley, became acquainted with its fertility and value, 
and as soon as the cessation of hostilities, consequent 
upon the battle of Quebec, would permit, a swarm of 
adventurers and speculators began to seek possession 
of these lands. The hardy yeomanry, too, of Connect- 
icut and Massachusetts, saw here a chance to better 
their condition ; consequently emigrants flocked hither, 
somewhat as they have done in these later years to the 
prairie lands of the West. 

Benning Wentworth, then governor of the Province 
of New Hampshire, directed a survey of these lands 
to be made ; at first, of sixty townships, extending 
sixty miles on the river, and three townships deep on 
each side. Soon after, new surveys were made, both 
north and west. In the year in which our charter is 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 7 

dated, sixty such charters were granted on the west of 
the river, and eighteen on the east side. The charter 
of Enfield is dated on the same day as that of Lebanon, 
as also those of Hartford and Norwich, the proprietors 
being from the same neighborhood. This number of 
grants was more than doubled in the next two years ; 
not inappropriately therefore, might this Fourth of 
July have been made the centennial anniversary of this 
central valley of the Connecticut, in which one hun- 
dred and fifty towns in this part of New Hampshire 
and Vermont should have met at White River Junc- 
tion, to celebrate the toils and sacrifices of their fathers 
in taking possession of these hills and valleys, and sub- 
duing them for their posterity. 

We must now confine ourselves more exclusively to 
our own town. After the destruction of Louisburg, in 
1758, William Dana and three companions, Connect- 
icut soldiers, came across Maine to the Connecticut 
River, designing to follow it down to their homes. In 
passing through this region, they found much to ad- 
mire and covet, and Mr. Dana determined to secure a 
home here. On his return to Connecticut, a company 
was formed, and the charter of this town was obtain- 
ed from Governor Wentworth, bearing date July -1th, 
1761. 

The main provisions of this charter are these : The 
town was to be six miles square. As soon as there 
should be fifty families resident in the town they were 
to have the privilege of holding two annual fairs ; and 
a market might be opened, and kept one or more days 
each week. The conditions of the charter were these : 
1. That every grantee, for every fifty acres in his 



8 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

share, should plant and cultivate five, within the term 
of five years. 2. That all white and other pine trees, 
fit for masting the royal navy, should be reserved for 
that purpose. 3. That from a tract of land near the 
centre of the town every grantee should have one acre 
as a town lot. 4. That for the space of ten years one 
ear of Indian corn was to be paid annually as rent, if 
lawfully demanded ; the first payment to be made on 
the 25th of December, 1762. After the expiration of 
ten years every proprietor, settler, or inhabitant, was 
to pay for every hundred acres owned by him, one shil- 
ling proclamation money, forever. One whole share 
of land (about 338 acres) was reserved for the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ; 
one whole share for a glebe for the Church of Eng- 
land ; one whole share for the first settled minister ; 
one for the benefit of schools, and five hundred acres 
for the use of Benning Wentworth, the royal gov- 
ernor. 

NAMES OF THE GRANTEES OF LEBANON. 

John Hanks, David Eldredge, 

John Salter, Nathan Arnold, 

Obadiah Loomis, Levi Hyde, 

Elijah Huntington, John Birchard, 

Huekins Storrs, John Allen, 

Robert Barrows, Jun., Lemuel Clark, 

Jesse Birchard, Joseph Wood, 

Richard Salter, Moses Hebard, Jun., 

Constant Southworth, John Hyde, 

Hobart Estabrooks, Josiah Storrs, 

Benjamin Davis, Nathan Blodgett, 

Daniel Blodgett >" M - Robert Hyde, 

Thomas Storrs, Jesse Birchard, 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. V 

Charles Hill, John Storrs, 

James Turner, Seth Blodgett, 

Jonathan Martin, Nathaniel Porter, 

Samuel Storrs, Nathaniel Hall,^ 

Joshua Blodgett, David Turner, 

Nehemiah Estabrooks, Joseph Martin, 

Jonathan Yeomans, Judah Storrs, 

Jonathan AValcutt, Edward Goldstone, 

Jabez Barrows, Jonathan Blanchard, 

Jonathan Murdock, Lutwhich, 

John Birchard, William Dana, 

Daniel Blodgett, James Nevins, Esq., 

Robert Martin, Samuel Penhallow, 

Thomas Barrows, Jun., Oniel Lamont, 

Joseph Dana, Jedediah Dana, 

John Swift, Mark Huntington Wentworth, Esq., 

Daniel Allen, Jun., Hugh Hall Wentworth, 

John Baldwin, William Knight, 
Clement Jackson, Esq. 

A majority of these persons were of Lebanon, Conn. 
They therefore gave the new town in the wilderness 
the name of their loved native home, — a name orig- 
inally given to that town in Connecticut, from the 
circumstance that there was found there a valley of 
cedars, suggestive of the " cedars of Lebanon." 

You will notice that the governor reserved to him- 
self five hundred acres of land in this town. He did 
the same in every grant through all this region, thus 
• securing to himself the title to some hundred thousand 
acres of land. His successor, John Wentworth, disap- 
pointed in finding that these lands were not willed 
to him, set aside all these titles, and, assuming what 
is now known as the squatter sovereignty principle, 
granted them to the actual settlers upon them. 

2 



10 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

The first meeting of the proprietors under the char- 
ter, was held at Mansfield, Conn., October 6th, 1761. 
A committee was then chosen to lay out the lots and 
roads, with instructions to begin immediately. 

To encourage the speedy settlement of the town, the 
proprietors " voted that those of their number, who 
shall settle upon their lands within the term of ten 
years, shall have the privilege of cultivating and im- 
proving such part of the intervals as shall suit them ; 
with these restrictions : that the interval so improved 
by them be in one piece or body, and when said inter- 
val shall be divided amongst the proprietors those 
persons aforesaid shall have their proportion of the 
interval so cultivated by them." 

These intervals along the Connecticut were wonder- 
ful affairs in those days. In our boyhood, before we 
had looked upon prairies larger than the whole State 
of New Hampshire, we used to think them immense. 
We boys of the hills used to feel some envy of their 
fortunate possessors. We are not surprised, therefore, 
to find that the proprietors thought them a valuable 
prize. 

The town was immediately surveyed and the work of 
clearing begun. How carefully the pioneers regarded 
the condition of their charter, to cut down no " pine 
tree fit for masting the royal navy," we are not in- 
formed. They probably had no great fear of his Maj- . 
esty's officers before their eyes, inasmuch as the laws 
of England required that a breach of a condition in a 
grant of land should be proved before a jury commis- 
sioned by a court of chancery, and no such court ex- 
isted in the Province of New Hampshire. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 11 

The labor of clearing these lands was very great. 
They were all burdened with an immense growth of 
the heaviest timber, never before disturbed by the 
woodman's axe. That woodman's axe furnished the 
reveille of those sturdy conquerors of the forest, and 
their morning gun of salutation to their neighbors was 
a huge pine, hemlock, or maple, thundering and crash- 
ing to the ground. 

Notwithstanding the labor of providing for them- 
selves a home here, settlers came here rapidly. The 
second winter, 1762-3, four men remained here. Five 
years later the population of the town was 162, viz : 
males over sixteen years of age and under sixty, 42 ; 
under sixteen, 50. Females, married, 30 ; unmarried, 
including children, 40. In 1775, the total population 
was 347. The revolutionary war arrested, for a time, 
the tide of emigration to this vicinity, and made heavy 
drafts upon its scattered inhabitants for the army. The 
sixth company of the first battalion of the Continen- 
tal army of New Flampshire seems to have been made 
up chiefly, if not wholly, from this immediate neigh- 
borhood. John House, of Hanover, was captain, and 
Thomas Blake, of Lebanon, was ensign. Some twen- 
ty-five or thirty were in the army from this town. Lu- 
ther Wheatley, Edward Slapp, Eleazer M. Porter, 
David Millington, and Capt. Joseph Estabrooks, are 
said to have lost their lives in the war. 

After the war the population increased quite rap- 
idly, so that, as early as 1790, it amounted to nearly 
1,200. The character of these early settlers may be 
inferred, not only from the herculean labors they were 
obliged to undergo, in order to provide for themselves 



12 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

a home and support their families, but from the inter- 
est they manifested in education and religion. 

It is a singular fact, and one well worthy of our no- 
tice, that the very first record of the town now extant 
is a vote passed May 13th, 1765, in respect to preach- 
ing in the town. That vote is as follows : " Whether 
we will have a minister in the town this summer, or 
will not? Voted the affirmative. 3d. That we first 
send subscriptions to y e neighboring towns, and get 
what we can subscribed, and what remains wanting 
to supply the pulpit six months, will stand 'sponsible 
for — to be paid at y c end of six months. 4th. Chose 
Aaron Storrs to carry a subscription ; to take care 
to get as much in y e neighboring towns as he can. 
5th. Voted that the select men take it upon them to 
seek quarters for the minister, and provide for his ac- 
commodation." 

That they were disposed to deal liberally with their 
minister is evident from the first record in regard to a 
salary. In 1768 the town voted to give a Mr. Wales a 
call to settle in the gospel ministry. " His salary the 
first year was to be £ 50, and to rise annually £ 5 till 
it should be £ 70." If we bear in mind that money 
was then worth more than double what it now is, we 
shall see that this first salary, voted when the town 
numbered not more than two hundred inhabitants, all 
told, was equivalent to a salary of five or six hundred 
dollars at this day ; and equivalent to a salary of six 
thousand dollars to be paid by the present inhabitants. 

These, our fathers, had been accustomed for many 
years to an able and faithful ministry of the W r ord of 
God, under such men as Rev. Dr. Wheelock. pastor of 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 13 

the church of Lebanon, and Rev. Richard Salter, pastor 
of the church of Mansfield, Conn. They knew the 
value, to themselves and families, of the regular preach- 
ing of the Gospel on the Sabbath, and were ready to 
make any sacrifices to obtain it. 

They knew, too, the worth of education. As early 
as 1767, we find on the town records a vote to estab- 
lish a school. September 7, 1768, twenty pounds were 
appropriated to support it, and a committee, consisting 
of Asa Kilbourne and Joseph Wood, was chosen to 
take charge of it. This first school was kept by Mr. 
John Wheatley in a log school-house, east of the for- 
mer residence of Capt. Joseph Wood. 

In 1775, four school districts were established; and 
in 1784, eight. In 1781, the land reserved in the char- 
ter for the Church of England, and for the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, was 
appropriated for the support of schools. In respect to 
education, the town was highly favored by the location 
of Dartmouth College in its vicinity as early as 1769, 
by which the thirst for education was nurtured, and 
a supply of well-trained teachers furnished. This re- 
mark, of course, will not be understood to imply that 
all our good teachers were from the college. Indeed 
there can be no question, that the same causes which 
led to the settlement of this region at that time, also 
determined the location of Dartmouth College. 

As early as 1758, there was a movement in the 
southern part of the Province of New Hampshire to 
obtain a charter for a college. Negotiations were in 
progress to this end, and several conventions of min- 
isters held for the purpose, when the plans of Dr. 



14 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

Wheelock were made known to them about- 1763, and 
further proceeding's were arrested. Dr. Wheelock's 
Indian Charity School, be it remembered, was in Leba- 
non, Conn. Our fathers, of course, were all familiar 
with his plans. His desire was to remove into the 
neighborhood of the Indians, in the hope that large 
numbers of them would avail themselves of the advan- 
tages of civilization and religion. In this town were 
not a few of his former parishioners, now opening their 
homes in the very presence of the Indians themselves. 
What more natural, then, than that in selecting a new 
locality for his favorite school, he should follow the 
steps of his old neighbors and friends, and choose for 
his permanent resting-place a spot, at once near to 
them and to the native Red men, whom he sought spe- 
cially to benefit ? 

While speaking of Dartmouth College, I will men- 
tion an incident which, while it illustrates the charac- 
ter of the prominent actors, also shows the facilities for 
travel and transportation which our fathers enjoyed. 

In the life of General Eaton, who was well known 
about the beginning of the present century in connec- 
tion with his expedition to Algiers, we read : "In May, 
1787, with his staff* over his shoulder, on which was 
suspended his pack, containing his linen and a few 
trinkets, which he expected to sell on his journey, and 
with one pistareen only of ready money, he started on 
foot from Mansfield, Conn., for Dartmouth College. 
He was admitted to the freshman class, and graduated 
in 1790. After a journey to Connecticut, he returned 
to Hanover and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts, 
August 28th. The object of that journey, his biogra- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 15 

pher probably had no means of knowing. The early 
settlers hereabouts could have told him. It was to 
procure the first bell of Dartmouth College ; and, so 
far as we know, the first bell whose sounds were echo- 
ed through these forests. He went in a horse-cart to 
Hartford, Conn., and after an absence of two or three 
weeks, reached Hanover on the afternoon before 
Commencement. The bell was immediately suspended 
from a tree, and soon made the welkin ring with a new 
sound, to the great joy of all the inhabitants and of all 
the visitors on that occasion. 

The location of Dartmouth College has proved in 
many ways a blessing to this town; and the town has 
contributed freely to the aid of the college. Fourteen 
hundred and forty acres of land were given to Dr. 
Wheelock for the use of the college ; and money has 
been contributed freely, from time to time, for the re- 
lief of its necessities. Fifty -four of her alumni* were 
from this town, and one of the honored dead of her 
faculty.-j* 

The first settlers of this town and their fellow- 
pioneers of this valley were fully up to the spirit of the 
Declaration of Independence. They would submit to no 
oppression, either by foreign or home governments. 

Another will call your attention from the past to the 
present, and perhaps speak of the unhappy struggle 
through which our country is passing. 



* See Appendix, No. 1. 

f Ira Young, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy. One other 
consequence of the vicinity of Dartmouth College should not be passed 
without notice. And that is the fact, that many of her graduates have found 
here what Solomon calls a "good thing " — a wife. — D. 



16 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

It may, however, serve to temper our zeal against the 
secessionists of the South, to be reminded that our fathers 
were the first secessionists. The history which records 
their uprising is not very luminous, as to details, but is 
substantially this : — 

The original grant of New Hampshire was made to 
John Mason, and extended sixty miles from the sea. 
The line passed from Rindge through the west part of 
Concord, striking Lake Winnipiseogee. Later acts 
extended its western boundary to Lake Champlain. 
Under these last, grants of townships were made, as 
before noticed, on both sides of the Connecticut. In 
1764, a decree of the King in Council was passed, 
limiting New Hampshire to the Connecticut. 

The grants to New York were not very definitely 
bounded ; and in consequence, a fierce strife arose as 
to the right of New York to control the land between 
the Lake and the Connecticut River. The inhabitants 
of the towns on both sides of the river were mainly 
from Connecticut and Massachusetts, and their views 
of public policy coincided. They were hence not very 
well satisfied with the decree which separated them 
from each other ; and when, after the Revolution, mea- 
sures were adopted for framing a constitution for New 
Hampshire, their dissatisfaction and independence were 
made manifest. Vermont had petitioned Congress to 
be received into the Confederacy as an independent 
State ; and a portion of the people, in many towns on 
this side of the river desired to unite with them. In 
sixteen towns, of which Lebanon was one, this portion 
was a majority. They took the position, that, since 
the government of Great Britain was overthrown, they 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 17 

were left to their own natural sovereignty ; that the 
original grant of New Hampshire extended but sixty 
miles from the sea ; that these townships were in- 
dependent grants, each in itself a sovereign political 
organization ; that they had been attached first to this 
and then to that larger sovereignty ; and now, as the 
power which had assumed thus to dispose of them was 
overthrown, they were in all respects their own mas- 
ters, and might attach themselves to what State they 
pleased.* 

On the other hand, it was maintained, that by their 
own acts, in receiving grants and protection from New 
Hampshire, they had acknowledged the sovereignty 
of that State over them. These views were the subject 
of fiery discussion and conflict through all the towns 
bordering on the river. Each town acted for itself, 
and every man in each town acted for himself. Their 
entire independence of each other will appear at once 
from the fact, that seceding towns were not in all cases 
adjoining each other. No common tie of domestic in- 
stitutions, or social relations, held together these first 
seceding sovereignties. 

These towns were Cornish, Lebanon, Dresden, (now 
Hanover Plain,) Lyme, Orford, Piermont, Haverhill, 
Bath, Lyman, Ap thorp, (now Littleton and Dalton,) 
Enfield, Canaan, Orange, Landaff, New Concord, (now 
Lisbon,) and Franconia. 

These towns refused to send delegates to the Conven- 
tion which formed the Constitution of New Hampshire, 



* In their own significant phrase, " they had returned to a state of 
nature." — D. 



18 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

but united together in a petition to the Vermont Assem- 
bly, which then met at Windsor, to be received as a 
part of that State. The question was submitted to the 
people of Vermont, and decided by public vote in favor 
of receiving the towns. They were accordingly admit- 
ted as a part of that State, and gave notice to New 
Hampshire that they had become Vermonters, and ask- 
ed for an amicable settlement of a boundary line be- 
tween the States. 

The government of New Hampshire, however, was 
by no means disposed to recognize the right of seces- 
sion. The President of New Hampshire, for so the 
highest officer of the State was then called, Hon. 
Mesheck Weare, wrote to Governor Chittenden, of 
Vermont, claiming still these towns, making an able 
argument against secession. " Were not these towns 
settled and cultivated under the grant of the Governor 
of New Hampshire] Are they not within the lines 
thereof ] . . . Did not the most of these towns 
send delegates to the convention of this State in 1775 ? 
Have they not from the commencement of the war ap- 
plied to the State of New Hampshire for assistance and 
protection? It is well known that they did, and that 
New Hampshire, at their own expense, hath suppli- 
ed them with arms, ammunition, &c, to a very great 
amount, as well as paid soldiers for their particular 
defence, and all at their request, as members of this 
State. Whence, then, could this new doctrine, that 
they were never connected with us originate ? I ear- 
nestly desire that this matter may be seriously attended 
to, as I am persuaded that the tendency thereof will 
be to anarchy and confusion." He also made an ap- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 19 

peal to Congress to interpose and prevent, if possible, 
the shedding of blood. 

The movement of those towns received no more en- 
couragement from Congress than this later secession is 
likely to receive from that which meets to-day ; but 
the quarrel was not an easy one to settle. 

At the first meeting of the Assembly of Vermont, 
after the people had voted to receive these towns, and 
the delegates from this side had taken their seats, the 
question arose, whether these towns should be erected 
into a separate county. This was refused, whereupon 
the delegates again seceded, and left the Vermont As- 
sembly in disgust. Their friends on this side of the 
mountains, bound more strongly to them than those on 
the other side, proposed to unite with them to form a 
separate State, on both sides of the river, to be called 
New Connecticut. Then followed a series of conten- 
tions between New York, Vermont, and New Hamp- 
shire, which I cannot now stop to detail, — all of which 
were finally settled by the admission of Vermont with 
her present boundaries, into the Confederacy of the 
United States ; a settlement which was hastened by the 
shrewd policy of Ethan and Ira Allen, who conferred 
with the British authorities in Canada and elsewhere, 
as if they desired an union with them. 

The settlement of this first secession was signalized 
by the addition of the first new star to the old thirteen 
on our glorious national banner. May the settlement 
of this more fearful secession of 1861 add new bril- 
liancy to the whole constellation ! 

This brief outline of this curious strife, I have 
thought it necessary to give, to show why we are sons 



20 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

and daughters of the Granite State, rather than Green 
Mountain boys and girls, though to be the last would 
be no less an honor. 

In some of the towns concerned in this contest, 
great disorders prevailed, every man doing what was 
right in his own eyes. But not so here ; the laws of 
Congress and the statutes of Connecticut were made the 
guide of their action, while they were in their " state 
of nature." At the first breaking out of the revolu- 
tionary war, a " committee of safety " was appointed 
with almost absolute powers. At a meeting held here 
immediately after their appointment, in connection 
with committees from Hanover, Plainfield, Canaan, 
and Grantham, the following vote was passed: "That 
the laws of our country ought and shall be the rule 
of our procedure in judging of the qualities of of- 
fences, and punishing the same, only with such vari- 
ations as the different channel of administration re- 
quires." 

The town itself, in the period in which its State 
connection was unsettled, resolved to adopt the laws 
of Connecticut, and maintain them ; and so they did ; 
though enforcing for a while the statutes of Vermont. 
When, at length, in 1786, they returned to their alle- 
giance to New Hampshire, like honest men, as they 
were, they paid up their back taxes to the amount of 
a thousand pounds sterling. 

A few extracts from the records, omitting names, 
will show the spirit of the times, and their style of do- 
ing business. 

At a meeting of the Committee of Safety held August 
2, 1775, "chose Nehemiah Estabrooks chairman, and 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 21 

John Wheatley clerk, of said committee. A. B. and 
C. I), appeared before said committee, and were exam- 
ined considering their laboring on the 20th day of July 
last, being the day set apart by the Grand American 
Congress, for public fasting and prayer throughout the 
continent ; when the above-named persons confessed 
their fault, and being admonished to a better conduct 
in future, which they engaged, were accordingly dis- 
missed by said committee." 

"Lebanon, March 6, 1780. At a meeting of the 
committee of safety of said Lebanon, appeared E. F., 
of said Lebanon, to answer to a complaint exhibited to 
said committee against said E. F. for sundry crimes 
and misdemeanors. Whereupon she, the said E. F., 
made a voluntary confession of the facts laid to her 
charge in said complaint, viz : striking and kicking, 
which are open breaches of the peace of the good 
people of this town. Whereupon said committee do 
award that she, the said E. F., pay a fine of two dol- 
lars for the use of the town, and the costs of trial, and 
stand committed till this judgment be satisfied." 

What think you of this? "August, 11, 1779, in town 
meeting : Voted that the town procure three gallons 
of rum for the people that shall attend to raise the 
bridge over the Mascomy, near to Capt. Turner's." 
This was the sole business done at that meeting, and 
it was enough. 

The account for rum and brandy for building the last 
meeting-house,* may be found in certain old account 
books, now in Mr. Kendrick's store, and they would 
astonish the present generation. 

* The present town house. 



22 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

Another singular chapter of our town history which 
illustrates very fully the independence, not to say the 
self-will of the early inhabitants, pertains to the build- 
ing of meeting-houses. 

As far as appears from the records, the first public 
action on the subject was in February, 1768. Thence 
onward for four years and a half, they discussed, and 
resolved, and re-resolved, whether they would build or 
not ; where they would build, and how large the house 
should be. In just about a dozen different town meet- 
ings this subject was " before the people." They first 
resolved not to build. Six months later they resolved 
to build, — two years later not to build, — three weeks 
later to build. The size of the house was first to be 
thirty feet square, with ten feet posts ; then forty-eight 
by thirty-four, with twenty feet posts ; then again forty 
by thirty, and ten feet posts ; and finally forty-eight by 
thirty-four, and ten or twelve feet posts. 

But the great question was where the house should 
have its local habitation. The strife was between the 
claims of one or two places on the river road, and sev- 
eral locations near Luther Alden's. At first it was 
to be on the hill near the old graveyard ; then on the 
river road a little south of West Lebanon depot ; then 
again on the hill, then in the clay pits, on this side 
of the Mascomy ; then the matter was entrusted to a 
committee of gentlemen out of town, who seem to have 
fixed upon a spot farther south, near Osgood's Mills. 

At one time, when the timber for the house had been 
delivered on the river road, a company of men appear- 
ed on the ground with teams to haul it away. An ap- 
peal, however, from their youthful pastor, assuring 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 23 

them that he could not consent to remain among them, 
unless they were more harmonious, prevented a resort 
to force. 

But in spite of committee reports, the hills were des- 
tined to prevail, as they always have, over the plains 
and the clay-pits, and the house was finally built on 
the south side of the road, near Mr. Luther Alclen's. 
This first controversy was settled in August, 1772, just 
about a month after the settlement of the first minister, 
Rev. Mr. Potter. 

For about eleven years, meeting-houses had rest. 
They then began to think of a new house. The major- 
ity of the inhabitants were in the southwest part of 
the town, and, of course, wanted the house near them. 
Meanwhile the east part of the town had been settled, 
and therefore, stout and determined resistance was 
made against such a location, and a central position 
demanded. 

The strife went on for seven or eight years, at times 
with no little bitterness. In the course of the contro- 
versy, the old house was taken down by a mob, the 
only one I recollect to have heard of in the history of 
the town.* A company of young men, headed by one 
" Captain Stubbs," alias Comfort Allen, gathered in 
the night, and proceeded quietly to remove the bone of 
contention, and before the morning light the house of 
worship was levelled to the ground. The timber was 
bought by private persons, and the house rebuilt on 
the hill, near the residence of Mr. Ziba Storrs, and 
continued to be used for meetings for several years. 

* There was one other, when they were in their " state of nature." I). 



24 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

The fathers and mothers of some of us used to ride on 
horseback, and in ox-carts from the extreme northeast 
part of the town, to that house ; verily, a pretty long 
sabbath day's journey, and, we should think a pretty 
hard sabbath day's work.* A portion of the people 
refused to go there, and were accustomed to meet in 
the house of Mr. Robert Colburn, which stood near 
Mr. Carter's residence. 

The contending forces at length drew nearer togeth- 
er, the south and west of the town fixing upon a spot 
near Mr. Peck's, good old Deacon Porter affirming, 
stoutly, that he would never come any farther. The 
east and north insisted still on the centre. How long 
the strife would have lasted if nothing but votes had 
been thrown into the scale, we cannot tell. It was 
finally settled by a proposition of Mr. Colburn, who 
owned the land of the village, and who came forward, 
and stuck a stake, and said, " If you will build the 
house on this spot, I will give to the town so many 
acres of land for a public common." The proposition 
was accepted, the house was built about 1792, and 
stood undisturbed until 1850, when the improved taste 
of the present inhabitants called for removal to its 
present location. f 



* We shall understand the length of the journey better if we keep in mind 
the faet that there was then no bridges east of this village — none in it ; the 
bridge near Mr. Robert Gates' had not been built, and the Maseoma could 
only be passed in the vicinity of the bridge, near Mr. Luther Alden's. D. 

f A curious testimony of the earnestness and obstinacy of this strife, ought 
not to be lost. November 22, 1792, the town voted "that a committee of dis- 
interested persons should be chosen to determine a central spot for a meeting- 
house; which committee should consider the travel as it respects quality and 
quantity, and actually measure to find the same, and say in justice where it 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 25 

The law authorizing - towns to assess taxes for build- 
ing meeting-houses and supporting ministers gradually 
became unpopular throughout the State, and in 1819 
was set aside by what is known as the Toleration Act. 
From that time each denomination was thrown upon 
its own resources for support. 

The town owned the meeting-house, and for a while 
apportioned the use of it among the different denomi- 
nations, till, one by one, they were able to provide for 
themselves. As the result we have several neat and 
convenient houses of worship, in which all are per- 
mitted to worship in quietness, according to their local 
convenience and religious preference ; several different 
denominations uniting cheerfully in this celebration. 

In respect to the personal notices which the occasion 
demands, I am constrained to regret that my time has 
not permitted me to visit the representatives of all the 
early settlers, to gather up their recollections of their 
fathers and mothers, and explore their family records 
in their old family Bibles ; to examine also the old 
town and church records, and combining all, be able 

ought to be erected, upon the consideration of every circumstance of the pres- 
ent and future inhabitants of the town." 

The following is the report of that committee : " In the first place, we cal- 
culated the soul travel to the new meetinghouse ; and secondly, to the mouth 
of the lane, between Mr. James Jones, and Mr. Nathaniel Storrs ; and found 
that there was 215 miles and 29 rods less soul travel to said lane than to the 
new meetinghouse. Likewise we found the land travel to the aforesaid spots 
to be 37 miles and 246 rods less travel to the new meetinghouse, reckoning 
one travel from each habitable one hundred acre lot. Likewise we found it to 
be 52 miles and 303 rods more land travel to Mr. Peck's than to the new 
meetinghouse." 

The mysteries couched under "soul" and "land travel" are left for solu- 
tion to the curious reader. — D. 
4 



26 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

to present you, to-day, a brief history of the internal 
life of the settlement, at least in all the first half of the 
century. The kindness of Rev. Mr. Downs, in grant- 
ing me the use of his carefully prepared statistics, en- 
ables me to add very considerably to what I have had 
the means of gathering myself. 

Four persons, I have already remarked, spent the 
second winter here. Their camp was not far from the 
mouth of White River. The names of three are known, 
Levi Hyde, Samuel Estabrooks, and William Dana. 

July 11, 1763, William Downer with his wife and 
eight children arrived ; this was the first family, and 
Mrs. Downer the first woman who spent a night in 
town. 

In the fall of the same year, came Oliver Davidson, 
Elijah Dewey, James Jones, and their families. Mr. 
Davidson built the first dam across the Mascomy. His 
was the first death, for him the first grave was opened 
in the new settlement. 

The following may be added as among the first set- 
tlers. Nathaniel Porter, Asa Kilbourne, Samuel Mea- 
cham, Joseph Dana, Jonathan Dana, Huckin Storrs, 
Silas Waterman, Jedediah Hebard, Jesse Cooke, Zal- 
mon Aspenwall, Joseph Wood, James Hartshorn, and 
Nathaniel Storrs. 

The first male child born in the town it is said was 
•Thomas Waterman, born July 11, 1766. On the rec- 
ords, however, we find the following : l{ Roger Heb- 
bard, son of Jedediah Hebbard, born August 13, 1764," 
and at a later date, Roger Hebbard married to Sarah 
Stickney, March 19, 1786. Whether Roger Hebbard 



/ 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 27 

was born here, the record does not state * but seems to 
imply that he was. 

The first female child born in town was Sarah Jones, 
daughter of James Jones, who was born December 22, 
1764. 

The first minister of the gospel in the town seems 
to have been a Mr. Treadway. On the records of the 
town, under date of August 25, 1766, we find the fol- 
lowing : " Whether the town will choose a committee 
to treat with Mr. Treadway, now resident among us, 
in order to his steady administration in the gospel min- 
istry, in the said town. Resolved in the affirmative ; 
and chose John Wheatley, Charles Hill, and Joseph 
Dana to be a committee for the purpose aforesaid." 

Mr. Treadway seems to have preached here a few 
months, but not to have been invited to settle here. 
The first " call " was given to a Mr. Wales, to whom I 
have already referred, but something in his reply dis- 
pleased the people, and induced them to reconsider the 
call. 

Soon after, Rev. Isaiah Potter, then a young man about 
twenty-four years of age, was invited to visit the place 
as a candidate for settlement. Pie came and spent the 
summer of 1771, and was invited to return the follow- 
ing spring. He did so, and, after a few months, was 
called with entire unanimity to be the settled minister 
of the town. He accepted the call, and on the 25th of 
August, 1772, was ordained and installed pastor of the 
church. The ordination took place in the open air, 
under an elm still standing on the banks of the Con- 

* The probability is that he was born in Connecticut, but for convenience the 
record was made here. — 1). 



28 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

necticut, a little south of West Lebanon depot, Rev. 
Mr. Olcutt, of Charleston, preaching the ordination 
sermon. It is a significant indication of the customs 
of the times, and an evidence of the fidelity of the 
youthful pastor, that, at the close of the exercises, he 
exhorted his flock, especially the young people, to re- 
frain from dancing, and all other vain amusements. 

By virtue of being the first settled minister of the 
town, Mr. Potter came into possession of one share of 
the land, according to the terms of the charter. The 
proprietors of the land had also agreed to appropriate 
£62 as a " settlement" for the first minister, to which 
the town added, by vote, £38, making his settlement 
£100, or about $500. In addition, his salary was £50 
a year, for two years, with an annual increase thereafter 
till it should reach £80 per annum. 

One of the considerations which induced Mr. Pot- 
ter to settle here, was the fact that Dr. Wheelock had 
already located the college at Hanover. His first visit 
to this town was but a short time before the removal of 
Dr. Wheelock and his family, and students. He and 
his neighbors turned out to help them, as they worked 
their way over the logs and stumps of the rough horse- 
oad from Charleston to Hanover. 

Mr. Potter was a great admirer of his more learned 
and experienced father, on Hanover Plain. They were 
warm friends and mutual helpers. In full sympathy 
with him in theological sentiments, and those views 
of revivals of religion, which were then called " New- 
light," Mr. Potter's labors, like those of his neighbor, 
were attended with revivals of great power. 

For the first few years of his ministry, his work was 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 29 

much interrupted by the revolutionary war. Respond- 
ing cheerfully to the calls of his country, he became 
chaplain of one of the New Hampshire regiments, and 
for a season followed the fortunes of a soldier. 

He was in the army under General Gates, in that 
darkest hour of the night of the Revolution, which 
preceded the break of day, in the surrender of Bur- 
goyne and his northern army. Before the last decisive 
battle, the young chaplain rode out in front of the 
army, and with uncovered head, a fair and lofty mark 
for the enemy's bullets, lifted up the voice of prayer to 
that God in whom our fathers put their trust. 

Having witnessed the surrender of Burgoyne, he 
soon after returned to this more quiet field of his life's 
work, confident that American freedom would soon be 
secured. 

There were giants in those days, and Mr. Potter was 
one of them, being six feet and two inches in height, 
and of corresponding physical strength. t- In mental 
abilities he rose above the average ; sound in doctrine, 
logical in his discourse, mighty in the Scriptures," quot- 
ing them freely from memory, a method, which by the 
failure of his sight, in his later years became a neces- 
sity, adding frequently the modest caveat, " if I right- 
ly recollect." Those of you of my own age can just 
remember the venerable old man, as he stood calmly 
under the old sounding-board, which we feared would 
some day fall upon his head, and talked to us of heaven- 
ly things. What he said we do not so well remember. 
His descendants * among whom I am happy to number 

* John M. Potter, member of Congress from Wisconsin, is a grandson. 



30 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

my own children, have several of his manuscript ser- 
mons written on paper which reminds one of the Stamp 
Act, in characters as small, and with abbreviations 
as numerous as are the old editions of Homer's Iliad. 
Mr. Potter died July 2, 1817, having been pastor of the 
church about forty-five years. 

His successors, Mr. Cutler and Mr. Cooke, were 
both, like him, of the order of high priests, both being- 
over six feet in height. The present ministers of Leb- 
anon, we presume, make up in quality what is lacking 
in quantity. 

Among the early settlers, no one is more worthy of 
special notice than John Wheatley. An Irish boy, he 
emigrated to this country, and was sold to pay his pas- 
sage. Falling into the hands of a kind man, in Con- 
necticut, who discovered and appreciated his superior 
talents, he received as good an education as the schools 
of the neighborhood could give, and when this town 
was settled he removed hither with his family, to share 
the toils and sufferings of a new country. He was the 
first town clerk, the first schoolmaster, the first civil 
magistrate, holding the office for nearly twenty years, 
and the first representative to the legislature of the 
State.* An upright citizen, a sterling patriot, and a 

* So the popular tradition runs. The records, however, do not sustain it. 
Mr. Wheatley was Proprietor's Clerk. Silas Waterman was certainly the 
first town cle?~k, holding the office eleven years. Mr. Wheatley was not only not 
the first representative, but never represented the town in the Legislature of 
New Hampshire. He once took his seat in company with Hon. E. Payne, in 
the Assembly of Vermont. He was also chosen as a delegate from this town, 
to the convention which formed the Constitution, but by vote of the town was 
recalled, not however from any fault of his. According to the records, the 
honor of being the first representative in the State legislature unquestionably 
belongs to Col. Elisha Payne, elected March, 1784. — 1). 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 31 

consistent Christian, he lived and died an honor to 
the town and the State. His grave should not be left 
neglected, and his gravestones broken down. 

Three of his sons were in the Continental army, one 
of whom, Luther, fell, mortally wounded in the Battle 
of Stillwater. 

The name of Estabrooks is prominent among the 
original inhabitants of the town. And whatever may 
be said of those who came after them, it may be said 
of them, as the Bible says of the heroes of David's 
army, " they attained not unto the first three " — Sam- 
uel Estabrooks, William Dana, Levi Hyde. Samuel of 
the " first three," Nehemiah also the chairman of the 
Committee of Safety during the period that tried men's 
souls, the steadfast and fearless defenders of liberty, 
and supporters of religion, they have left a line of 
worthy descendants, who have kept the name in fra- 
grance among us. Two were graduates of Dartmouth 
College ; one of whom, Joseph Estabrooks, was the 
President, for many years, of the East Tennessee Uni- 
versity. His influence is felt to-day in the loyalty of 
that portion of a seceded State. 

Of Nehemiah Estabrooks, the following account has 
been furnished : — 

" Nehemiah Estabrooks, the son of Deacon Nehemiah 
Estabrooks, born in Hebron, Conn., came early in its 
first settlement, into Lebanon. He married Elizabeth 
Slapp, daughter of Major John Slapp, who held a ma- 
jor's commission in the French war, and in the Revo- 
lution was an active and efficient officer. Nehemiah, 
hearing of the Battle of J^exington, in the afternoon, 
by the sleepless energy of his wife, he was ready at 



32 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

sunrise the next morning to take leave of home and 
family, and shoulder his musket in defence of his 
country. He was in active service from that morning- 
till the close of the war, with the exception of a fur- 
lough of two months, during which time he visited his 
home. He was nearly all the time under the immedi- 
ate command of Washington, being one of his famous 
body-guard. He returned poor, having received Con- 
tinental money for his pay, fifty dollars of which he 
paid for a breakfast on his way home. His brother 
Joseph died in the service. 

" Nehemiah, in 1808 or 1809, removed to what was 
then known as the Holland Purchase, in New York. 
On receiving intelligence of the burning of Black Rock 
by the British forces, he mustered a company of his 
neighbors and marched to that place. Arriving just as 
the last boat was leaving the shore for the Canada side, 
he drew up his men, and they gave the 'Red Coats' the 
contents of their muskets." * 

The Danas also rise up before us.f William, one 
of the " first three," whose keen eye first detected the 
worth of these lands ; Joseph, the first deacon of the 
church, and Jonathan, his successor. Among the de- 
scendants of William is the Rev. E. L. Magoon, D. 13., 

* Furnished by Dr. A. Smallcy, a descendant. 

t Capt. William Dana, an officer in the French war, and for seven years in 
the Revolution, wintered with Washington at Valley Forge. He was the first 
man to cut a stick of timber, plant a hill of potatoes or corn in the town. He 
also held the first charter for a ferry across the Connecticut. In addition to 
other excellencies, he was a true Christian. Before any minister was resi- 
dent in the town, he officiated at funerals. On one occasion two men came 
from Orford, for him to go there to make a prayer at the funeral of a man 
who had died there. For these facts I am indebted to a letter written by his 
youngest daughter, Mrs. Fanny Cochran, now living in Pembroke, N. H. — D. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 33 

pastor of a Baptist church in Albany, N. Y., whom we 
had hoped to see here to-day. A bricklayer by trade, 
he worked his way to an education by the help of his 
trowel. An eloquent preacher, a popular speaker, the 
author of more books than all the rest of Lebanon to- 
gether. 

The remaining name of the first three is Levi Hyde, 
largely employed as a surveyor in laying out the roads 
and farms of the town. " Old 'Squire Hyde," is a name 
familiar to the older portion of the town, as a standing 
authority in all matters of law, order, and town his- 
tory. 

In the list of early settlers my eye is arrested by the 
name of Joseph Wood, whose descendants constitute 
an extensive forest, and are " too numerous to men 
tion." 

Two of them, however, must not be passed unno- 
ticed. Rev. Samuel Wood, D. D., long pastor of the 
church in Boscawen, came to this town with his father 
when quite a lad, graduated at Dartmouth College in 
1779, and settled in Boscawen in 1781, where he re- 
mained till his death, in 1836, at the age of 84. 

It is safe to say that no man in New Hampshire ex- 
erted a wider influence for good, during his life, than 
he. Besides all the labors of a responsible pastoral 
office, and of many public trusts, all of which he per- 
formed with great ability and faithfulness, he fitted for 
college, in his own house, more than a hundred young 
men, among whom are some of the most honored names 
in our State and nation. It is enough to mention Dan- 
iel and Ezekiel Webster. 

That venerable centennarian, whose grave is still 



34 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

fresh among you, was the second brother of Dr. Samuel 
Wood. Captain Joseph Wood was about seven years 
old when his father came to this town. His whole life 
has been a part of its history. Pursuing the quiet and 
honorable calling of a farmer, of excellent judgment in 
all practical affairs, energetic, he accumulated a hand- 
some property, which he well knew how to use for 
good. The Congregational Church in Lebanon, the 
church and seminary in West Lebanon, have reason 
long to cherish the memory of his generosity, of his 
wisdom in counsel, of his solid virtues. A good man, 
rich in faith and in good works, he died full of years 
and honors. Of his younger brother, Benjamin, long 
the faithful and honored pastor of the church in Upton, 
Mass., I have not time to speak. 

Nathaniel Porter, whose wife, Martha, was the only 
other person in the town whose age has reached 100, 
is known to me chiefly through his son and grandson, 
whom we used to call the Old Deacon and the Young 
Deacon Porter, both of whom have long since gone to 
their rest. Old Deacon Porter has left his monument 
among you in yonder church edifice and the parsonage 
connected with it. Strong, thick-set, resolute, nearly 
obstinate upon occasion, his large head represented, 
and guided a larger heart. His few words, somewhat 
stammering, were full of meaning and of force. His 
daily prayer was, that he might not outlive his useful- 
ness ; and that prayer was heard. lie returned home 
from church on the Sabbath, sat down in his chair, and 
quietly died. 

Of Zuar Eldridge we have this record, in connection 
with the revolutionary war : He sailed in a privateer, 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 35 

was captured, imprisoned, was finally released, worn 
down by disease and confinement, and was nursed by 
Diarca Allen. 

Rev. Walter Harris, D. D., one of the ablest and 
most eloquent divines of New Hampshire, in his youth 
a musician in Washington's army, long the honored, 
judicious, and faithful pastor of the church in Dun- 
barton, should be held in remembrance as one of the 
noblest sons of Lebanon. 

Hon. Elisha Payne was a prominent actor in the 
affairs of the town, at a little later day. At the time 
of the conflict between New Hampshire and Vermont, 
as to jurisdiction over the sixteen towns, he was Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Vermont, and was authorized by 
the legislature of that State to raise a military force to 
resist the threatened invasion of this State. He after- 
wards removed to Orange, N. H., and while there re- 
ceived from this town an offer of a tract of land, at the 
outlet of Enfield Pond, provided he would settle there 
and erect mills ; which offer he accepted. The mills 
there were long known as Payne's Mills. 

At one time he made an effort to form a new town- 
ship from parts of Lebanon, Enfield, and Canaan, of 
which East Lebanon should be the centre ; but the at- 
tempt failed. He was a man of intellect, intelligence, 
and energy. He held many important offices, both in 
town and State. He was the builder of the chapel of 
Dartmouth College. 

And what shall I say more ? Time would fail me to 
speak of the Storrses, the Huntingtons, the Water- 
mans, the Hebbards, the Downers, and the Aspenwalls 



36 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

in that honored list of the first settlers. They are all 
familiar and worthy names. 

Coming down the century a generation or more, my 
eye rests upon David Hough, once a representative in 
Congress, and others of the same name ; upon Colonel 
Storrs, and Captain Sluman Lathrop, who to my youth- 
ful vision stood up among the " Sons of Anak " ; upon 
Barnabas Fay, whose representative you are getting 
impatient to hear ; upon Tildens, a name immortalized 
by yonder beautiful seminary overlooking the valleys 
of the Connecticut and White River ; upon Ticknors* 
whom the title-pages of not a few American books will 
keep in remembrance ; the Bakers, Bentons, Durkees, 
Aldens, Blodgetts ; upon the Halls, the descendants of 
one of whom — Captain Nathaniel Hall — have adorned 
the three professions, — Law, Medicine, and Divinity. 
There is a multitude, besides, whose very names I can- 
not stop to repeat. 

There are two characters of this period, so promi- 
nent in my view that I must be excused for naming 
them. They were brothers-in-law, the one a farmer, 
the other a merchant ; both short and stout, with pretty 
capacious brains. Each thought and acted for himself, 
— and they generally thought and acted very much 
alike, except in politics ; one was a strong Democrat, 
the other as strong a Federalist. They were often se- 

* Lebanon claims William D. Ticknor, the well-known publisher, of Boston. 
Another of the name should have more than a passing notice. His merits 
cannot be better told than in the following sentiment, furnished by Robert 
Kimball, Esq. : " To the memory of Deacon Elisha Ticknor, — the Jason who 
found for us the golden fleece, — the first to introduce the rearing of Merino 
sheep, in the town, for which the town is largely indebted for its pros- 
perity." 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 37 

lectmen at the same time, and had occasion to test their 
personal friendship in the fiercest political strife. They 
lived and died, however, true friends, and alike respect- 
ed and beloved, as honest and true men. Their names 
were Diarca Allen and Stephen Kendrick.* Their de- 
scendants must speak for themselves. 

Among physicians who have been largely identi- 
fied with our history, the name of Phineas Parkhurst is 
prominent, whom many of us well remember. His life 
in Lebanon dates back to 1780. The burning of Roy- 
alton, Vt., by the Indians — one of the sad scenes of 
the revolutionary war — brought him here as a mes- 
senger of alarm. When the intelligence that the In- 
dians were approaching the town reached his father's 
house, Parkhurst, then but a youth, mounted his horse 



* The annotator, free from the restraints which bound Dr. Allen, may add 
somewhat to the notice of these men. Diarca Allen was in his youth a sol- 
dier with his brother Phineas, in the revolutionary army. The older people 
of the town will remember the attachment between these brothers, while in 
the army, and the stories told of their frequent, earnest inquiry, " Seen any- 
thing of Ark. ? " " Seen anything of Phin. ? " Diarca Allen was prominent in 
town affairs, a successful farmer, an honest man, a wise counsellor, a friend 
to the poor in a quiet way, — the father of seven sons and one daughter, all 
yet living, — all honored and useful. In his old age, as I knew him, content- 
ed, genial, not without humor, not often second in a trial of wit, abounding in 
stories of old times, cherished and honored by his children, in simple Christian 
faith awaiting his call to go up higher. He died in 1850, aged 89. 

Stephen Kendrick, the successful merchant, scrupulously honest, accurate 
in all business affairs, and as capable as honest, for many years a town clerk, 
the most accurate and painstaking of them all, — it is a pleasure to consult the 
records made by him. Always of uncompromising morality, — in his later 
years an humble, devout Christian ; religion had no better friend than he, the 
church no firmer pillar. He attained not the good old age of his friend, but 
was called suddenly away in the midst of his years and usefulness, in 1834, 
aged 64. His children, like those of his friend, have been useful and honored. 
One is Professor of Chemistry at West Point, another a professor in Marietta 
College, Ohio. — D. 



38 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

and rode with all possible speed through the neighbor- 
hood, giving the alarm. As he was endeavoring to es- 
cape, he was shot in the back, the ball passing through 
the body and lodging in the skin in front. Holding the 
ball in his fingers, he pursued his way down the river, 
arousing the inhabitants by that terrific cry, " The 
Indians are coming ! " not stopping to rest till he had 
crossed the Connecticut. The wound unfitted him for 
the life of a farmer, and he chose that of a physician. 
He studied medicine with Dr. Hall, then of this town, 
had a large practice, exerted a wide influence, accu- 
mulated a handsome property. He died in 184-1, 
aged 85. 

The names of Richards, Hall, Partridge, Flagg, and 
Hubbard, among the dead ; of Gallup and Plaistridge 
among the living, completes the list of doctors of past 
generations among us. 

For lawyers, Lebanon has never seemed to present a 
very inviting field. Whether because of its remoteness 
from the county-seat, or because of the high moral, 
and consequent peaceable character of its inhabitants, 
I do not know. Till proof to the contrary is furnished, 
w T e may assume the latter reason. 

Hon. Aaron Hutchinson, was probably the first who 
established himself in town as a lawyer. He gradu- 
ated at Harvard College, in 1770, and settled here about 
1780. When he came here, there were but three law- 
yers in all Grafton County. He lived to a good old 
age, having exerted a wide influence in his profession 
in this region. 

Samuel Selden, still living in Michigan, I believe 
is the only other lawyer of early times whom I recol- 
lect. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 39 

I cannot close without asking you to drop a tear to 
the memory of two or three of my own age. Of the liv- 
ing I do not propose to speak, though there are names 
of which we may be proud. Of the dead, though well 
known to many of you, I may speak. 

Story Hebard graduated at Amherst College in 1828, 
having distinguished himself as scholar in the natural 
sciences. Notwithstanding a strong bias to these stud- 
ies, he sacrificed it to his desire to preach the Gospel 
to the heathen. In 1835 he left his native land for- 
ever, and went forth to the land of the Bible, a mis- 
sionary of the Cross. His scientific knowledge, in ad- 
dition to all his other labors, enabled him to furnish 
to American journals of science some of the most val- 
uable papers to be found upon the geology and botany 
of the Holy Land. He died, much lamented, in 1841, 
and his body rests in foreign soil, on the Island of 
Malta. 

Ira Young was born a mathematician, and as such 
was known among us in his early life, and when teach- 
ing in our district schools. At the age of 22, having 
previously wrought as a house carpenter, he began to fit 
for college, and in a little more than a year completed 
his preparation. He took his stand in college at once, 
as one of the best scholars, of one of the best classes 
ever graduated at Dartmouth, commanding especially 
the admiration of the venerable Professor of Mathe- 
matics, whose chair he was called to fill soon after leav- 
ing college. Dartmouth never had a professor of clear- 
er head, and greater worth, as a teacher and a man, 
than he. He died 1858, in the midst of his useful- 
ness, a loss to the college and the community, at the 
age of 57. 



•10 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

AVillis Bliss, the beautiful boy, the affectionate and 
obedient son of an accomplished and early-widowed 
mother, the youth of high toned moral character, the 
truly magnificent scholar, an honor to the Military 
School of West Point, than whom it has no higher ; 
the writer of those unequalled war despatches of the 
old hero, Zachary Taylor, in the Mexican war, he was 
cut down by death, just as the eyes of the nation were, 
beginning to turn to him as one of the most promising 
of her sons, either in military or civil life. 

The century over which we have thus rapidly glanc- 
ed has been one of the most remarkable of all the cen- 
turies of time. It has been emphatically a century of 
progress Inaugurated by the revolutionary war, it 
includes the whole of what history will record as the 
first period of American republican government, — its 
period of sturdy, vigorous youth, of rapid growth in 
territory, in wealth, in learning, in religion, in short, in 
all the elements of national greatness. It closes in the 
midst of a civil war, which is to inaugurate the period 
of its ripened manhood, demonstrating to the world 
that a government founded upon the will of an intelli- 
gent and God-fearing people, is at once the strongest 
and happiest government on earth, and sealing with 
the heart's blood of the children, the institutions of 
liberty for which the fathers suffered and died. 

The period of old age, when even a government is 
ready to vanish away, will, I trust, never overtake our 
nation ; but I believe, rather, that its growing bright- 
ness and strength will at length be lost in that prophet- 
ic day, when every nation and every man shall be free, 
and all men everywhere shall enjoy undisturbed what 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 41 

the Pilgrims found on the Rock of Plymouth, " Free- 
dom to worship God." 

Our fathers and mothers came to this place, in ca- 
noes slowly paddled up the river, on foot, and on horse- 
back, in ox-carts, and on ox-sleds * — toiling through 
the forest at the rate of five or ten miles a day. We 
come by steam at the rate of five hundred. They 
were sent forth from their old homesteads with prayers 
and benedictions, as if they were never to be seen 
again. Our mothers, youthful brides from old Con- 
necticut, stood in the doors of their log-cabins, and 
wept, as they looked out upon the almost unbroken for- 
ests about them, and thought of those left behind ; and 
when a new emigrant arrived in the neighborhood, 
he came loaded with a precious freight of letters, some 
sad, some joyous, from those of whom nothing had 
been heard for many months. We take up our " dai- 
lies," and read what but yesterday was going on all 
over the land, even to the Pacific. Such changes has 
the passage of time wrought. 

They bore their trials nobly, and to-day we are proud 
to remember them. Are we proving worthy such a 
parentage ? Are we worthy the richer privileges we 
enjoy'? Are we, with all our advantages, accomplish- 
ing as much for the world as they have done before 
us] 

The fathers and the mothers, — where are they? 
We must seek them in yonder resting-place for the 

* Mr. John Hebbard has still in good preservation portions of the sled upon 
which his ancestor brought to this town, from Connecticut, his family and 
goods, drawn by a yoke of ''three year olds." 
G 



42 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

dead, and other like sacred spots. We have met to- 
day to speak of their memories — we shall part to-day 
— and never all meet again on earth. When all the 
centuries are over, may we all meet in our Fathers 
House above. 



APPENDIX. 





No 


. I. 




GRADUATES FROM LEBANON. 






DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 




Experience Estabrooks, 


1776. 


Phineas Parkhurst, 


1805 


Samuel Wood, 


1779. 


James Hutchinson, 


1806 


Ezekiel Colburn, 


1779. 


John Porter, 


1806 


Elisha Tieknor, 


1783. 


Thomas Hardy, 


1807 


Elisha Payne, 


1784. 


Jabez Peck, 


1807 


Elijah Lyman, 


1787. 


Constant Storrs, 


1807 


Walter Harris, 


1787. 


Samuel Wood Colburn, 


1808 


John Griswold, 


1789. 


Daniel Hough, 


1812 


Nathaniel Hall, 


1790. 


Experience Porter Storrs, 


1813 


Zenas Payne, 


1790. 


Joseph Estabrooks, 


1815 


John Walbridge, 


1791. 


Amos Wood, 


1815 


Silas Waterman, 


1792. 


John Kendrick, 


1826 


Benjamin Wood, 


1793. 


Ira Young, 


1828 


Isaiah Waters, 


1793. 


D. H. Allen, 


1829 


Ira Hall, 


1793. 


Benjamin Ela, 


1831 


William Dana, 


1794. 


George Cooke, 


1832 


Barrett Potter, 


1796. 


Richard B. Kimball, 


1834 


Nathaniel Storrs, 


1796. 


Aldace Walker, 


1837 


Joseph Peck, 


1800. 


Phineas Cooke, 


1843 


Lemuel Bliss, 


1801. 


Harvey C. Wood, 


1844 


Nehemiah Huntington, 


1803. 


J. J. Blaisdell, 


1846 


Experience Porter, 


1803. 


Benjamin E. Gallup, 


1847 


John Porter, 


1803. 


Henry Allen, 


1849 


Luther Storrs, 


1803. 


Elias H. Richardson, 


1850 


Samuel W. Phelps, 


1803. 


Samuel W. Dana, 


1854 


Henry Hutchinson, 


1804. 


D. A. Dickinson, 





44 APPENDIX. 

AMHERST COLLEGE. 

Story Hebard 1828. 

NORWICH UNIVERSITY. 

Cyrus H. Fay. 

WEST POINT. 

Willis Bliss, 1834. | Henry Kendrick, 1 835. 

James G. Benton. 

PHYSICIANS NOT GRADUATES OF COLLEGE. 

Waterman Dewey, Alvin Ford, 



Sylvanus Martin, 
Win. Gallup, 
Daniel Dustin, 
Harry Allen, 
Constant Abbott, 
Benjamin T. Hubbard, 



Charles H. Cleaveland, 
John Liscomb, 
Sylvanus Dewey, 
Adoniram Smalley, 
Sylvester Ford, 
Wm. D. Buck. 



CLERGYMEN NOT GRADUATES OF COLLEGE. 

Luther Wood, John Lothrop, 

John Waters, Colbee Hardy, 

George Storrs, Daniel Hardy. 
Reuben Mason, 

In preparing this list, I am greatly indebted to the tenacious and 
accurate memory of Thomas Potter, Esq. D. 

No. II. 

TOWN CLERKS OF LEBANON. 

Silas Waterman, from 1765 to 1776. 

John Wheatley, from 1776 to 1784 ; from March to July, 1786. 

Elihu Hyde, from 1784 to 1786. 

James Fuller, from 1786 to 1792. 

Stephen Kendrick, from 1792 to 1819, with two intervals of a year 

each. 
Timothy Kenrick, from 1819 to 1857. 
E. J. Durant, from 1857. 



APPENDIX. 45 



No. III. 

SOLDIERS FROM LEBANON IN THE REVOLUTION. 

John Colburn, Jesse Cooke, 

Nathaniel Storrs, Elkanah Sprague, 

Edward Slapp, Joseph Wood, 

Rev. Isaiah Potter. Noah Payne, 

Nathaniel Porter, Jr., David Millington, 

Nathan Wheatley, Thomas Wells, 

Samuel Estabrooks, Ncheiniah Estabrooks, 

Jeriah Swetland. Azariah Bliss, 
Zuar Eldridge, 
John G-riswold, 
Zacheus Downer. 
John Slapp, 

Levi Hyde, Charles Hill. 

Probably this list is incomplete. 

Besides these, numbers were employed as scouts, in the neighborhood, 
at Strafford, at Newbury, Vt., and at a place in Canada, called the 
Cedars, under the command of Lieut. Turner. 



Luther Wheatley, 
John Wheatley, 
Nathan Durkee, 
Ephraim Wood, 



The following are interesting memorials of that memorable struggle : 
' ' An accompt of the time and charges of my going to Royal ton at 

the time of the alarm on the 16th of October 1780. 

" Myself three days ; found a horse to carry provisions from Lieut. 

John Lymans to the foot of Tunbridge mountains ; necessary charges — 

eight dollars. 

"JERIAH SWETLAND." 

"Lebanon, Jan. 26th, 1779. 

" At a town meeting legally warned were passed the following votes, 
viz. Maj. Slapp moderater. 2d That the town recommend it to the 
commissioned officers of the malitia in this town, to select six men as a 
scouting party, in Conjunction with other towns, in order to make Dis- 
covery of the Approach of the enemy, if any there be, and to give 
timely notice thereof to the Inhabitants. 

" Voted also to recommend it to said officers to Equip fifty-six men to 
be ready at a minute's warning to march against the Enemy, in Case of 
an invasion, and also they use their Endeavor to have the whole of their 



4:6 APPENDIX. 

Company in the best posture of Defence that may be ; in case of a gen- 
eral attack. Voted that the six men for scouting be Engaged till the 
first day of April next, unless sooner discharged, and also that Each 
man Receive 40s per month for the time being, as money passed in 
1774 ; and also that the Town provide Each man with a blanket, and a 
pair of snow-shoes for their use for the time being, and then to be Re- 
turned to said Town. Voted that in case Lieut. Ticknor should fail 
of Going with said Scout, that said six men make Choice of such meet 
person as they shall Chuse to take the Command of them in his Room. 
Voted that the Authority of this town Stop the transporting of all kinds 
of provisions, that may be attempted to be carried away, from or thro 
said Town till the Danger of the Enemy be over Except such as are 
purchased for the use of the Continent, (army) 

" Voted that the Authority of the Town, and all others the inhabitants 
Be Directed to Examine all strangers suspected to be Spies, and if need 
be to Detain them, as the Exigency of the Case may Require. Voted 
to Disolve said meeting. 

" Attest, JN. WHEATLEY, Town Clerk." 

" An account of the Expense and losses sustained by the town of 
Lebanon, in the publick Defence since the contest with Great Brittain. 

£ s. d. 
May 1775. Expense to Committee after and for ammunition 20 5 4 
July 1776. Expense to Committee after and for ammunition 29 
July 25. Rec'd of Col. Payne ten fire-locks, 20 lbs. of 
powder, twenty wt of Lead and ten flints which 
said Col. Payne obtained of the State of N. H. 
for the use of the Reg't commanded by Col. 
Jonathan Chase ..... 
In the 1777 paid to nine men that join'd Col. Scilly's Reg't 
for three years service in the Continental Army 
£24 Each, silver, m . . . .216 

By orders from Col. Chase an Express to Col. 
Paine July 3d, 1777, 22 miles — By another 

Express July 30th to Do 1 16 

July 3d, 1777. Express to Capt. Hendy, ... 28 

July HOth. Express to Col. Morey 14 



APPENDIX. 47 



May 1777. Capt. Sam. Paine paid an Express to Col. 

Elisha Paine ■ 18 

July 1777. 6 Pack horsos, 3 days. 34 miles to Coffins 1 16 

Man and horse two days to carry Packs 12 

To Ferriage over Connecticut River 10 2 

July 30th 1777 to six Pack Horses to Otter Creek 70 miles 

to the Block House 3 12 

A man with the Pack Horses 7 days . .11 

Oct. 1777. Paid James Jones for the use of his horse to Sar- 
atoga and for his bridle lost in s'd service 1 13 
Committees Expense of Collecting and prizing 

horses for the service to Saratoga . . 114 

To 62 lbs. of lead ; powder, 3 lbs. . . 3 17 

July, 1777. Maj. Grriswold's Express to Col. Paine . . 18 

July 18th, 1780. By a journey of two horses and a boy two 
days to Orford to carry the baggage of a party 
of Frenchmen by order of Col. Chase 1 4 

1780, 1781. Two Expresses to Canaan on publick service 158 

Jan. 26, 1779 by six men as a Scouting Party for 1 month 

at 40s per month, as money passed in 1774 12 

Aug. 1780 by 60 men, one day, in the alarm at Barnard at 3s. 

per day ...... 9 

1780. By Expence in the late Alarm Occasioned by the En- 
emy's destroying the Town of Boyalton, &c 146 16 9 
By paying and victualling 12 men Engaged 
for 1 month to scout upon the Frontiers at 48 
per month, but as s'd men were in s'd service 
but three weeks their wages and victualling 
amounted to . . ... . 41 4 6 

March 2d, 1781. To paying and victualling six men Kaised 
for one month, to be under the command of 
Capt. Nelson to scout upon the frontiers, but as 
s'd men Continued in s'd service but three weeks, 

Expence . . . . . . 22 1 2 3 

Expence for transporting provision for s'd men 

to Newbury . . . . . .118 

March 1781 by Expence in the Alarm at Newbury . 4S :> 3 

Sept. 1781 by expense in the Alarm at Corinth for 60 men 9 



48 APPENDIX. 



£. s. d. 



By Expcnce of the Selectmen in time &c. in procuring 
provisions and other Necessaries for the soldiers in 
the several Services and Alarms inserted as above- 
said, 50 Days at 6s. per day . . . .15 

Two barrels of Beef. 2 hund'd § per barrel for the 
troops at Corinth at £4 10s. per barrel . . 9 

1781. By a bounty paid to Eleven men that engaged in the 

publick service for G months at £4 10s. each 49 10 

Additional pay advanced by the town to s'd men 24s. 

per month for five months and J . . . 72 12 

1 7 SO. For three men that 'Listed under Capt. Sam'l Paine in 

the Publick Service at Cohos — a bounty 40s. each 6 

For 8 men under Capt. Bush 1 month and £, bounty 

and wages . . . . . . 38 8 

To Lieut. Huntington 1 month and ^ at £5 5 per 

month 717G 

Sum total ..... £ 770 1 1 



A POEM 

IN 

Commemoration of Jjje (Bite Jj\\\)kM\ ^wutaarj 

OF TIIK 

CHARTER OF LEBANON, N. H., 

DELIVERED JULY FOURTH, 1861, 

BY REV. CYRUS H. FAY, 



Of Providence, K . I 



Eev. C. H. Fay : 

Dear Sir : In behalf of the Committee of the Town, I hereby request you 
to furnish for publication a copy of your admirable Poem, delivered on the 
Fourth of July last, the occasion being the "Centennial Celebration of the 
Charter of Lebanon, N. H." 

Yours truly, 

G. W. BAILEY, Corres. Secretary. 
Lebanon, February, 1862. 



Rev. G. W. Bailey : 

Dear Sir : I feel highly complimented by the request which the Com- 
mittee of my native town have made through you, their Corresponding Sec- 
retary. Although my estimate of the production they solicit for publication, 
may fall far below that which they are pleased to entertain, I cannot refuse to 

comply with their kind request. 

Yours most truly, 

C. H. FAY. 
Providence, R. I., February 7, 1862. 



POEM. 



We come, thy children come, dear Mother Land ! 

Thy call we heard afar. By eastern strand, 

Where ocean billows roll their anthem bold, — 

'Mid northern hills, which lift their summits old 

Above the vales where hamlets nestle warm, 

Though cold around them breaks the awful storm, — 

On prairies wide, where towns like mushrooms grow, 

As westward waves of population flow, — 

By southern streams, which onward ever sweep, 

Through green savannas, broadening towards the deep, — 

In cities vast, our country's pride and boast, 

Like jewels strung along her winding coast ; 

In rising towns, remote from thronging mart, 

Where springs the life-blood of the nation's heart, — 

We heard thy voice, and now in gladness come, 

To share thy welcome at our childhood's home ! 

But dost thou know us all ? and wilt thou own ? 

Thy "boys" have up to stalwart manhood grown, — 

Exchanged their noisy sports and careless ways, 

Tor sober work in life's meridian blaze. 

Thy " girls," which left thee when both young and shy, 

Their fortunes in the world's strange mart to try, 

Are women now, and mothers, too, I ween, 

With troops of children, strangers on thy "green." 

And as these winds around our brows shall play, 

They '11 lift to view some locks of silver grey, — 

Badges of age, perchance of wisdom great, 

Gracefully worn by fathers of the State. 

Yes, we have changed since, joyous, hale, and fleet, 



v> 



POEM. 

These fields we roamed on childhood's bounding feet: 

Long years, eventful years, since then have flown, 

Which, seeds of care, with lavish hands have sown. 

Thou, too, hast changed, O mother of us all ! 

Impartial time spares neither great nor small ; 

It furrows makes on nature's rugged brow, 

And, pressed with age, e'en rock-braced mountain's bo'. 

But slight the change that o'er thy form has passed : 

The same firm hills still breast the northern blast ; 

Though, to our view, their brows seem tempest-worn, 

And here and there their forest- robe is torn ; 

And on their slopes, once mantled thick with trees, 

Broad fields of grain are nodding to the breeze. 

We miss the solemn pines that whilom stood, 

In stately pride, the monarchs of the wood, 

Wearing their plume-like crests, forever green, 

The crowning grace of all the wild- wood scene. 

0, that one relic of the mighty race 

Were left, to show our children, from its place, 

How stood, in stature grand, in strength sublime, 

The forest A naks of the olden time ! 

Slight change within these quiet vales we see, 

Made verdant still by tireless Mascomy, 

And vocal, too, for, as it flows along, 

Its waves keep step to their own joyous song. 

The grand old elms, 'round which in youth we played, 

Still throw, for other sports, their welcome shade, — 

Still lift their heads above the busy town, 

And on its thrift with conscious pride look down. 

But in thy homes on hill-side and on plain, 

And in thy streets, where, like descending rain, 

The foot-falls pattered from the dawn of day. 

'Till decp'ning shadows quenched the fading ray ; 

Sad proofs we see of changes manifold, 

Among the forms that walked these ways of old. 

The fathers, mothers, where, 0, where are they? 

Their furrowed brows meet nut our gaze to-day. 

Ah, there, within the churchyard's realm of rest, 



PD KM. 53 

Their bones repose, their spirits with the blest! 
Finished their course, their noble life-work clone, 
They bowed in death, and passed triumphant on, 
Leaving exempt, for aye, from moth and rust, 
The stainless, rich memorial of the just. 

Swayed by the hour, our minds far backward run, 
Backward to seventeen hundred sixty-one, — 
A century from to-day ! Now look upon 
The chartered •' tract " just christened Lebanon ! 
From hill-top high to depth of lowest dale, 
The lonesome winds through olden forests wail ; — 
We see no opening in the solemn shade, 
Save here and there by fierce tornado made ; 
Or where the streams from shadows leaping bright, 
Their breasts expand to catch the gladsome light. 
The cunning fox, and wolf, and wildcat grey, 
All undisturbed pursue their panting prey ; 
The cautious crow no powder ever smelt, 
Nor fiercer hawk the fear of huntsman felt ; 
And eagle bold, on craggy height enthroned, 
His sway enjoys, by feathered subjects owned. 
Ah, who will dare upon his realm intrude ? 
"Who break the spell of this deep solitude ? 
Lo, our reply ! Yon ranks of yeomen bold, 
With sinews toughened both by heat and cold, 
By rain, by sunshine, and by hardest toil, 
To plant their homes upon this virgin soil, 
And rear their church, — religion's sacred shrine, — 
Are marching northward, nerved by faith divine. 
There \s Dana, Downer, Davidson, and Wood, 
Storrs, Porter, Hebbard, Wheatley, true and good, 
Hill, Kilbourne. Hartshorn, Meacham, Huntington, 
Waterman, Blodgett, heroes every one ; 
Jones, Dewey, Turner, Tildeu, Fuller, Hyde, 
Estabrooks, Cooke, and Aspenwall beside. 

Eldridge, Lathrop, Hough, Potter, Hutchinson. 
And Bliss, Peck, Alden, Griswold, Sprague, and Young; 



54 POEM. 

Chase, Martin, Barrows, Woodward, Allen, Hall, 
Clapp, Bosworth, Hillings, Ticknor, Freeman, all. 
With Colburn, Swctland, Parkhurst, Kendrick, Fay, 
Wells, Liscomb, Durkee, Payne, at later day 
Their stout hands gave to clear the forest wild, 
And patient wrought till fields in beauty smiled : 
And other names there were, which, had I time, 
I 'd gladly weave in my unpolished rhyme. 

Now rings the axe from depths of wildest gloom, 
Now crash the trees descending to their doom ; 
Loud crackles next the all-consuming fire, 
While smoke-wreathes rise with aspect dark and dire, 
Befitting pall, as spreading o'er the skies, 
For forests wild departing from our eyes ! 
And now behold the " log-house," rude and low, 
And fields of grain, which round it rankly grow : 
What simple life beneath that humble roof, 
Of what hard toil the " clearing" wide gives proof. 
Thus in the wavy woods, from east to west, 
Cleared spaces bloom like " islands of the blest ; " 
Grouping in beauty round that central spot, 
Revered by age, and ne'er by youth forgot, 
. Where stands the sacred church, and school-house plain, 
The cherished germs of all our social gain. 
Small profits from their arduous labors grew, 
But few the wants their frugal habits knew. 
Silks, satins, laces, ribbons, such as now 
Rustle on hoops, and flutter round the brow 
Of maidens fair, in all the winds that play, 
Were quite unknown in that primeval day. 
In homespun suits young men went forth to " woo," 
And sweet times had with maids, in homespun too : — 
Sweet times, though by the fire-place wide and high, — 
The tongs and shovel standing staidly by, — 
They sat on chairs flag-bottomed, heavy, r^ugh, 
Or " settle" hard, crammed full of household stuff! 
No chaise then rocked aristocratic pride. 
Nor buggy light gave pampered wealth a ride: 



POEM. 00 



The farm-horse served for draft and carriage both, 
And seldom he at duty's call was loath ; 
Saddled and pillioned, he the ground would clear, 
With man and wife, or swain and sweetheart dear. 
What though so rude the ways and customs then ? 
They gave the world some ornamental men ; 
And women, too, were moulded by their might, 
In whose pure fame their children now delight. 

Now later times, our childhood's far-off days, 
With all their pleasant scenes and social ways, 
Are brought to view by mem'ry's magic power, 
And notice claim at this high festal hour ! 
Behold the farm-house, of content the seat, 
Beneath whose roof, in union close and sweet, 
Plainness and plenty side by side could live, 
And toil to health its richest bloom could give ! 
Thy sway, capricious Fashion, was unknown ; 
Then bowed no slaves before thy gilded throne : 
Luxury then could not her sway advance, 
Nor thou, insidious foe, Extravagance. 
No idler droned within the busy hive, 
No sharper purposed by his wits to thrive, 
For sun-browned labor then with honor crowned. 
Held, all in "fee," the thrifty acres round. 
At home, where woman held her useful sway. 
No petted daughter languished life away. 
Or thrummed piano while her mother toiled. 
Or novels read, till she for service spoiled, 
Was only fit to lounge and flirt the fan, 
Companion meet for some exquisite man ! 
Then Lowell's looms were but ideal things. 
And Cotton was not of the race of kings : 
For maiden sinews did the work of steam, 
The shuttle threw, and drove the heavy beam, 
Made hum with speed the ancient spinning-wheel, 
And, partner of its toil, the rapid reel. 
0. how could cotton gain tyrannic rule. 



56 POEM. 

While woman wrought in home's industrial school ! 

Before her glance have holder tyrants cowed : 

E'en lords domestic to her tongue have howed : 

What chance, then, 'gainst her supple, skilful hand, 

The base pretender of our southern land ! 

0, woman true, again assert thy power, 

And light shall break upon this darksome hour ! 

Then locomotive, screaming forth its ire, 
As if possessed of fierce fire-demon's dire, 
Dragging its lengthy train on desp'rate trips, 
Like the dread dragon of Apocylypse, 
Had never filled these beasts and birds with fright, 
Or echoes waked on every mountain height ; 
The stages then came rolling into town, 
And from their tops the "mails" were tumbled down. 
What favored men stage-drivers were, in view 
Of boys, who longed to be stage-drivers too ! 

Each season brought its proper work and care ; 
Each season had of pastime meet a share. 
When blooming spring led on her flowery train, 
We ploughed the field, and sowed the fruitful grain ; 
And when the " stent " was done, the easy " stent," 
With powder, shot, and gun, we hunting went, 
And roamed the woods in search of tempting game, 
That we might win successful hunters' fame : 
How proud, when homeward we in triumph bore 
A crow, or fox, and told adventures o'er! 
What strains rang forth from leafy wood and grove, 
As spring's wild warblers sang their guileless love! 
Then rollicked wild the free and happy lambs, 
In pastures green, o'erwatched by careful dams ; 
And merry calves in barn-yard's narrow space, 
Fought mimic fights, and ran the reckless race, 
While weary cows, the day's hard grazing done, 
Sedately chewed their cuds and watched the fun ! 



POEM. i 

Next, summer came, the " haying season" hot, 
Whose arduous tasks will never be forgot. 
scythe, and rake, and pitchfork sharp and strong, 
What memories now around you closely throng, 
Of strifes with neighbors in adjoining field, 
And feats herculean, when, — the muscles steeled 
By blackstrap — men, themselves no longer then, 
Went wild with strength, and boys felt strong as men ! 
What music, as the mower's scythe went through 
The grass so tender in the morning dew, 
And bobolink and lark flung clear and free, 
Their matin notes of liveliest melody ! 

Two holidays resplendent summer had : — 
The Fourth, when tories deemed the land was mad. 
What cannon-peals awoke its morning bright ! 
What echoes broke and thundered into night ! 
What speech, when patriotism found a vent, 
Through lips of orator grandiloquent ! 
We do this business now in other ways, 
With crackers sharp, and fireworks' wondrous blaze, — 
But does the land with loftier ardor glow, 
Than in those simpler days long time ago ? 
And last, like angel visit, came serene, 
" Commencement Day," on Dartmouth's classic green. 
Ah me ! what awe those learned men inspired, 
In neckcloth white and broadcloth black attired, 
While slow, through rustic crowds, they moved in state, 
The critics grave of anxious graduate ! 
What wonder filled our minds when standing mute 
Among the carts of Yankee Pedler's cute, 
While they their gaping victims sought to nab, 
Through dire confusion wrought by ceaseless gab ! 

When Autumn followed in the gorgeous train, 
We gathered in the promised harvest gain, 
Our hearts o'erflowing with unceasing praise, 
To Him who gave its blandly tempered days. 



58 POEM. 

— Those cool autumnal days, with mornings bright, 
And sunsets glorious fading into night ; — 
Those peaceful nights, kind nature's choicest boon, 
So bright with stars, and graced by harvest-moon ! 
With hues all fadeless o'er us now they rise, 
As erst they rose on our delighted eyes. 

'T was then — the day's work done — with line and hook, 
And expectation great, we sought the brook, 
Where dwelt the wary dace and spotted trout, 
With high artistic skill to pull them out. 
How oft, alas, our only earnest bites, 
Musquitoes gave of furious appetites ! 
Not e'en a shiner dangled from the pole, 
And died to keep the fisher's credit whole. 

Those " Huskings" in the long cool evenings bright. 
And after-sports, far-reaching into night — 
And " Apple-Bees," that ended off with plays, 
Too rude, they think, in these more prudish days, 
Ah, clear are all in memory's pictured past, 
And glow in colors which through life will last. 

Nor shall we e'er forget that time so grand 
When martial strains went pealing through the land, — 
Great Muster Day! ne'er shall pass from mind 
The Bugler fat, of most mysterious wind, — 
The nervous Drummer, drumming as if Mars 
Had charged him with the noise of all his wars, — 
The Fifer, pouring out his breath in streams. 
And which, like steam let-off, expired in screams ; — 
The Soldier, marching at the loud command, — 
The Captain bold, with flashing sword in hand, — 
The Colonel fine, on restive charger set, — 
The General grand, with gleaming epaulette, — 
And strange " sham-fight " which rounded off the day, 
That we might " homeward plod our weary way." 

Next, — greatest day of all, — Thanksgiving came ! 
0, weeks before we fancied time was lame, 
Or hard opposed by fate and furies strong, 



POEM. 

So slowly moved his lagging steps along. 
At length Aurora saunt'ring up the east, 
Announced the great day of the yearly Feast ! 
What joy, as brothers, sisters, parted wide 
From parents dear, and home's loved altar-side, 
Together met their youth to live again, 
And brighten love's enduring, golden chain! 
What rapture felt impatient boys that day, 
As turkey brown on ample platter lay, 
And chicken, rich plum-pudding, pie and cake, 
Their keen vorocious appetites did wake ! 
But here I pause — my palate tickles so, 
By visions fired, — I dare no further go ! 

— Then followed Winter, blustering, cold, and drear, 
But not without its hours of pleasant cheer. 
Those evening pastimes round the glowing hearth, 
When stormy blasts went howling o'er the earth ; 
The merry sleigh-rides when the winds were still, 
And waveless snow wrapt valley, plain, and hill ; 
Our slides on sleds our own good hands had made, 
And skating sports upon the ringing glade, — 
0, these will ne'er by us forgotten be, — 
Oases they of deathless memory. 
As winter days returned, so short and cool, — 
The farm-work done — then op'd the winter-school ; 
And boys and girls who had their " teens" attained. 
Were sent to be by sapient " Master" trained ; — 
The " School-Marm" mild, who'd ruled the smaller fry. 
Through blander months, had laid her sceptre by. 

And now before us stands, distinct, complete, 
The School-House famous, learning's sober seat : 
Like other seats where wisdom taught its lore, 
Renowned by age, and by decay still more. 
Its site, though central to the neighbors round. 
Was not on nature's most commanding ground : 
Seldom did human hands essay to j>lacc 



60 POEM. 

Upon that spot an artificial grace. 

No skill e'er drew the structure's odd design, 

Nor was it built to plummet and to line ; 

No paint e'er stained its loosened clapboards thin, 

Nor white-wash cheap relieved the walls within ; 

In lieu thereof the smoke's perpetual play, 

The ceiling frescoed in its own wild way ; 

For high within a solemn fire-place stood, 

Tor nothing else but furious smoking good. 

Around this place, arranged in order wise, 

Rose bench on bench, as Alps on Alps arise : 

The seats in front were never made to ease 

The short-legged urchins of the A B C's, 

But made to earnest give, at life's young day, 

Of science's heights and learning's rugged way. 

And now 'mid all conspicuous we can see 

The place of dreaded, high authority, 

Crowned with its chair, the seat of sternest rule, 

Where sat enthroned the monarch of the school, 

Whose smile ber ignant filled the room with cheer, 

As smiling day a cloudless hemisphere ; 

Whose awful frown from that Olympian height 

Cast o'er his realm a shadow black as night. 

Those masters wise ! a wondrous race of men ! 

0, shall we look upon their like again ! 

From college some, with tongues so toned to Greek, 

They half disdained their mother tongue to speak ; 

And others were with metaphysics crammed, 

All Stewart, Bacon, Locke, and Brown were jammed 

Within the compass of their craniums wide, 

Enough to thrust all rudiments aside ! 

But most of learning less, or less pretence, 

Their school advanced by sterling common sense : 

Remembered these with lasting, grateful love, 

And ranked the heroes of the earth above. 

What though of yore advantages were few? 
The text-book dry. and mode of touching too; 
What though brain-labor, earnest, hard was done? 



POEM. ()1 

Were not, through these, bright crowns of triumph won? 

We 've teachers now more finished, it is said, 

And modern modes to serve in study's stead ; 

We 've school- rooms built with childhood's ease in view, 

And fixtures fine, our childhood never knew : 

Say, will the young, thus favored, e'er attain 

To higher worth, for pathway made so plain? 

Lo, now the " Meeting House" upon the " green," 
So firmly built, and placed there to be seen, — 
Since thrust aside, with other things of old, 
By modern taste, or by irrev'rence bold : 
Its plain white walls rise clearly on our view, 
As once they rose when life with us was new ; 
And towering upward, graced with gilded balls, 
Which glow like fire as summer's sunshine falls ; 
The " steeple's" outlines grow before our eyes, 
A thing of earth, but reaching to the skies ! 
In burly strength the ancient structure stood, 
Expressive of its sturdy builders' mood, 
Daring both storm and heresy to mock, 
And crow defiance through its weather-cock ! 
Within, what marvels our young eyes beheld, — 
The church arrangements of the days of eld ! 
Before us, raised sublimely broad and high, 
(Fit stand, we thought, for message from the sky,) 
The pulpit stood, and threw its shadow o'er 
The " deacons' seats," built close its base before ; 
While just above it, pendant on a cord, 
Was hung the broad, mysterious sounding-board. 
How oft we 've wondered what its purpose was, 
And how it served religion's holy cause ! 
How oft we 've trembled for the saints below, 
Lest rope should snap and let it downward go ! 
The pews, high-backed, were built both snug and square, 
With seats on hinges to turn up in prayer : 
What rattle, as this service ended, when 
The seats fell back and said their loud amen ! 



62 POEM. 

Mid-way between the roof and well-worn floor, 
By pillars propped, above each entrance door, 
On three sides round, the galleries were built, 
Whose outer nooks, for boyhood's restless guilt, 
Afforded safe retreat, since there the eye 
Of parson grave could not the pranks espy. 
Sometimes a sound he 'd hear and guess the cause, 
And with a warning word give mischief " pause." 
No sacrilegeous stove there glowed with heat, 
Save private ones of tin for aged feet, 
Though windows loose and doors on every side 
Let air drive in through chinks and crannies wide ! 
How could devotion rise in place so cold ? 
Was preaching warmer in those days of old? 

Those saintly men who broke the Bread of Life, 
And waged the pious, theologic strife, 
Were grave of mein and solemn was there speech, 
Too distant most for childhood's heart to reach ; 
They seemed to move in pathways all their own, 
Forever in the shadow of the Throne ! 
But well they met their days' demands, and now 
Each shines with Paul, a crown upon his brow. 

0, with what brightness beams life's early day ! 
What charms invest its scenes long passed away ! 
We thank Thee, Father, in this festive hour, 
For faithful memory's hallowing power ; 
And for the bliss delicious, pure, she brings 
From childhood's clear, and sweet, and sparkling springs! 
— But now from these high sources must we turn, 
For lo, our hearts with patriot ardor burn ; 
The inspiration of this day's decree, 

Which gave our Nation Birth and Liberty. 

i 

— Why sweep these shadows o'er the andscapc fair? 
Why trembles, as with doom, the heavy air? 
0. has our Union lived its day of glory. 



toem. 08 

To henceforth be with empires old of story ? 

And will its stars, bright gems on Freedom's crown, 

Be plucked therefrom and then go darkling down ? 

And must those hopes enkindled by their light, 

Throughout the world, be quenched in sudden night? 

No ; by the vows of early martyrs dead, — 

No ; by the blood our honored fathers shed, — 

No ; by their bones and battle-fields renowned, 

Our guarded relics, and our hallowed ground, — 

No ; by our past achievements grand and great, 

By foregleams bright of still more glorious state, — 

No ; by that name immortal, Washington, 

No star shall pale to perish, — no, not one! 

Soon rebel hearts shall cease our flag to spurn, 

And mad Secession's fires to spread and burn ; 

And hopes of vengeful despots now aglow, 

Shall quickly out in endless darkness go : 

For rising up in armed battalions grand, 

Are loyal men throughout our northern land, 

Whose solemn vow is registered on high, 

That now Bebellion impious must die ; 

And if its death involves foul Slavery's doom, 

Then both be hurled into one common tomb ! 

My Native State ! the home of heroes' bold, 
Whose names on scroll historic are enrolled, 
Thy quick response from all these vales and hills, 
To Freedom's call, my heart with rapture fills. 
Thy faithful sons now marching bravely forth, 
With marshalled hosts from all the mighty North, 
Will prove where rolls the conflict fierce and dark, 
Worthy the fame of Langdon and of Stark. 

Dear Native Town! my love flows forth to thee, 
For all thy proofs of noble loyalty ! 
Thy warrior sons are not of coward stock, — ■ 
No braver hearts will breast the battle-shock ; 
For Kendrick skilled, and Benton calm, aye, all, 
Have sworn to conquer or to bravely fall. 



64 POEM. 

0, that the grave might yield one hero dead, 
Of valor high, that peerless lustre shed 
On Mexic's plains, whose form to-day we miss, 
Thy worthy son, lamented Major Bliss ! 

I pause ; my task, loved mother land, is done ; 
How mean for one thus honored as thy son ! 
Accept it as the tribute of a heart, 
Whose thankful love would worthier gift impart. 

— Shall e'er again our longing eyes behold 
These verdant plains and rocky summits old ? 
This may not be, for shadows flit in view ; — 
No, — may not he — so here 's our sad adieu : 
Farewell green Vales and upland Pastures wide, — 
Farewell ye Woods, whose grandeurs yet abide, — 
Farewell ye " Homes," the nurseries of Men, — 
Farewell dear Granite Hills, still firm as when 
By wooing winds first kissed in dalliance free, 
And round you rolled the new-born Mascomy ! 

Bright stream of our childhood, farewell, farewell 
Still gladden thy shores through meadow and dell ; 
And long may the sound of thy musical waves, 
Be requiem meet by our forefathers' graves ! 



AN 



OEATION 

IN 

Commemoration of tjje #ne pimkeMj) ^nnibersOT 

OF THE 

CHARTER OF LEBANON, N. H. 

DELIVERED JULY FOURTH, 18(51. 
BY PROF. J. ^W . PATTERSON, 



OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 



Lebanon, January 10, 1862. 
Prof. J. W. Patterson : 

Dear Sir : In behalf of the citizens of Lebanon I return you their thanks 
for the eloquent and timely patriotic Oration, delivered July 4, 18(il, in com- 
memoration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Charter of Lebanon, 
and respectfully request a copy for publication. 
Truly yours, 

CHARLES A. DOWNS, 

For the Committee of the Town. 



Hanover, January 11, 1862. 

Dear Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note, com- 
municating to me the wish of the citizens of Lebanon, that a copy of the 
Oration which it was my privilege to deliver at the centennial celebration, on 
the 4th of July last, be given to the press. 

I will comply with the request, without apology, though, as you are aware, 
the Oration was prepared hastily, to meet an emergency, and with no expecta- 
tion of it'^ publication. 

Please accept my cordial acknowledgment of the courtesy with which you 
have expressed to me the thanks of the people of Lebanon, and believe me to 
be, with sentiments of high regard, 

Your obedient servant, 

J. W. PATTERSON. 



ORATION. 



It is a beautiful custom, handed down to us from the 
earliest ages, to celebrate those days of the calendar 
which have been consecrated to a perpetual remem- 
brance either by great misfortunes or splendid tri- 
umphs. 

Great deeds and imperishable events, as they trans- 
pire, throw an interest and a glory into the passing 
hours which time can never efface. 

Days thus embalmed, as they rise on the circling 
year, touch common sensibilities and find a glad rec- 
ognition in the loftiest and purest sentiments of men. 

Holiest among these secular sabbaths is the birth- 
day of our own national independence. It has a sin- 
gular prominence in the record of civil and religious 
liberty. The free of all lands are a distinct people, 
whose unity and lineage is perpetuated by a paternity 
of ideas, and this subtle filiation has proved closer and 
stronger than the affinities of blood. The unbroken 
record of the struggles of this race for liberty, stretch- 
ing through the varied events of all ages, develops the 
divine plan in human government. It is this that 
gives a sublime import to the festivities of a free peo- 
ple uniting to celebrate their national triumphs. It is 
this that gives to our national holiday its prime signifi- 
cance. 



68 ORATION. 

The student of history finds here and there, in the 
pathway of nations, great epochs into which many 
streams of influence, flowing from different countries 
and distant periods, concentre and combine their forces, 
and wherein the intelligence and culture, the strength 
and liberty secured by patient study and experience, by 
suffering and bloody conflicts, in the lapse of years, are 
organized into new and superior institutions by men 
whom Providence has raised up for such a time. 

Such was the day we celebrate. It was one of the 
great nervous centres of history, spreading its broad 
and sensitive network backward and forward, receiving 
influence and vitality from every event and era of the 
past, and transmitting a formative power and an eleva- 
tion of character to the institutions of the future. 

The declaration of rights and the proclamation of 
independence made on the 4th of July, 1776, viewed 
in their connection with English and colonial history, 
and the subsequent establishment of a free and inde- 
pendent government, constitute one of the most mo- 
mentous and significant events of civil history. The 
cause of freedom and of civilization there moved for- 
ward and entrenched themselves behind principles and 
institutions which, by the help of God, shall never 
be thrown down, but shall stand the imperishable bul- 
warks of liberty and the splendid monuments of a 
Christian civilization. 

It would be a strange and unfllial act in us to re- 
frain, on the recurrence of such a day, from paying 
our tribute of admiration and love to the great states- 
men and patriots, and the brave yeomanry of that dark 



ORATION. 69 

and perilous time when the foundations of many gen- 
erations were laid in tears and blood. 

The work of our fathers was not so much the re- 
assertion of principles which had long been recogniz- 
ed, and the re-establishment, upon better foundations, 
of institutions which the lust of power had subverted, 
as it was the clear and distinct enunciation of truths 
which before had been only dimly foreshadowed in 
songs and literature, and the firm and fearless setting 
up, upon a broad scale, of institutions which before 
had only existed in partial and miniature forms. 

There were pure patriots and great captains among 
the ancients who struggled and died for liberty. There 
were wise statesmen and elegant scholars, profound 
philosophers and gifted poets, but in the absence of 
the art of printing, there could be no wide-spread lit- 
erature, no general intelligence among large and ex- 
panded populations ; and hence the right of suffrage 
and representation could not be extended, and was not 
recognized as a common right, even by the freest and 
most enlightened of the ancient nations. The great 
centres of learning had not at their command the swift 
messengers of a broad commerce., nor the iron web of 
trade, which in our day carry thought and civilization 
wherever the sun sheds its light upon the habitations 
of men. As a consequence of this want of general 
intelligence and the means of a rapid intercommunica- 
tion, republics extending and transmitting the rights 
and privileges of a well-ordered liberty to large and 
populous regions could not exist ; only narrow democ- 
racies, limited to a single city or league of cities, and 
destined soon to be swept away by the savage hordes 



TO ORATION. 

of barbarism, or, if suffered to survive, shielded only 
by their insignificance. One after another those little 
free states were blotted out, either by foreign power or 
intestine strife. At length the battle-axe of the Goth 
and Vandal was heard to ring even on the gates of 
Rome, and the great empire, which had retained the 
empty name and form of the republic long after its life 
had departed, was itself subverted. 

With the supremacy of barbarism began the long 
night of history. 

" As Argus eyes, by Hermes' wand oppressed, 
Closed one by one to everlasting rest ; 
Thus at her felt approach and secret might 
Art after art goes out, and all is night ; 
See skulking truth to her old cavern fled, 
Mountains of casuistry heaped on her head ; 
Philosophy that reached the heavens before, 
Shrinks to her hidden source, and is no more." 

The iron rule of feudalism followed, and the last 
vestiges of freedom seemed ready to be swept away. 
The sons of liberty fled for safety to the fastnesses of 
the mountains, and there waited, in a virtuous poverty, 
the developments of Providence. But contrary to all 
hope, the brazen womb of feudalism gave birth to a 
sense of personal independence which, in connection 
with the ideas imparted to the people by the form of 
society organized by the Christian church, tended pow- 
erfully to break down the government of despotic lords, 
and by degrees to introduce a more liberal system of 
civil institutions. At length, what Guizot calls " the 
spiiit of municipality," began to increase the intelli- 
gence and power of the masses, and to awaken their 



OR ATI OX. 71 

aspiration for a larger liberty. Guttenburg invented 
the art of printing, and the Turks drove the learned 
Greeks from old Byzantium. Consequent upon these 
events, there was a general fomentation of public sen- 
timent ; the love of letters revived, and the Reformation 
followed. The spirit of adventure and discovery, too, 
awoke, and man seemed to be advancing rapidly to the 
realization of a better condition, — to something of po- 
litical security and encouragement. 

But just at the moment when men were in the act of 
securing political freedom, the swiftest and most terrible 
scourge ever invented by the demon of oppression inter- 
vened and blasted their hope. Standing armies, in the 
pay and interest of the king, were created. The proud 
barons were humbled by this fearful force, we must 
allow, but, as feudalism went down, kingship passed 
into the ascendant, and the rights of the people seemed 
lost forever. It is difficult to discover how political ser- 
vitude could ever have been dislodged from its strong- 
holds had not the great Genoese mariner, whose life 
and death are the saddest of historic tragedies, opened, 
under the leadings of Providence, an outlet to the op- 
pressed from this dungeon of tyranny. 

In England, the people had wrested a few privileges 
from the throne, and still feebly claimed the rights of 
freemen, not as the inalienable prerogative of birth, but 
upon the ground of precedent and authority. As a 
class, however, they were subdued and trampled upon 
by the iron heel of the government and the privileged 
orders. At this critical period, religious intolerance 
and political power united their forces, both in England 
and on the Continent, and, as if impelled into madness 



72 ORATION. 

by secret and mysterious impulses, worked all the en- 
gines of oppression, till they pushed into hopeless exile 
the Puritans of England, the Germans of the Palatinate, 
and the devout Huguenots of France. For such men, 
the last best product of many ages, God reserved a 
country broad and rich, beyond the sea, far removed 
from the corrupting influences, the thwarting prejudi- 
ces, and giant tyrannies of the old world. The circum- 
stances are significant. The overruling power which 
moves in history has ordered events ; and the feeble 
colonies thus driven into the wilderness by the hand of 
power, infold the great Christian nation which is to suc- 
ceed. But they are not yet prepared to enter upon their 
special mission. A century and a half of pupilage must 
intervene. A people must be made strong and self- 
reliant by the neglect of the home government, by the 
long and relentless Indian wars ; by the self-denial of 
the wilderness and the hardships of colonial life. Their 
views must be matured by the logic of experience and 
their power increased by numbers. 

A train of events and a succession of causes ordered 
by Him " who made of one blood all nations of men for 
to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath deter- 
mined the times before appointed, and the bounds of 
their habitation," prepared them to lay the foundations 
of the State on the secure basis of learning and religion. 
Bitter persecutions and a narrow inheritance of worldly 
blessings, had driven them to a profound meditation 
upon the government of God as revealed in his word, 
and to an earnest study of the import and teachings of 
history. The divine oracles and history taught them 
that absolute, hereditary rulers and privileged orders 



ORATION. 73 

served rather to perpetuate abuses, than to conserve the 
welfare of society ; that government and social institu- 
tions were not safe in their hands, even when guarded 
by the severest checks. They themselves were now en- 
tering upon scenes in which, if not they, their children 
would learn that the rightful source of power is, under 
God, the will of the governed ; that the welfare of so- 
ciety can more safely be entrusted to the wisdom and 
discretion of an educated and moral people than to the 
hazards of birth under any form of kingly rule. 

Royal families may degenerate ; may become selfish 
and unscrupulous ; may seek for personal ends in con- 
flict with the public interest ; or, if the worst does not 
happen, may be outstripped by the people in the march 
of ideas and intelligence, and then endless conflicts and 
sorrows will succeed. But when the people make and 
administer their own institutions, they are flexible, and 
advance or change to meet the shifting phases of society. 
Collisions are thus prevented, and freedom given to en- 
terprise and thrift to multiply their resources. The 
aspirations of men are not baffled and turned into forces 
of revenge and destruction, but encouraged and kept 
healthful by the prospects of reward. The majority 
are rendered contented and hopeful while prosperity and 
intelligence widen with the advancing years and strength 
of the nation. In the little provincial assemblies which 
grew up under their charters, the colonists learned to 
legislate and to provide for emergencies. There, too, 
they discovered the value of great principle of repre- 
sentation, which has completely regenerated political 
science and practice, and almost made that a necessity to 

the moderns which was an impossibility to the ancients. 
10 



74 ORATION. 

" The patria," says the profound jurist, Horace Bin- 
ney, "of us moderns ought to consist in a wide land 
covered by a nation, and not in a city or little colony. 
Mankind have outgrown the ancient-city state. Coun- 
tries are the orchards and the broad acres where modern 
civilization gathers her grain and nutritious fruits. 
The narrow garden beds of antiquity suffice for our 
widened humanity no more than the short existence of 
ancient states. Moderns stand in need of nations and 
of national longevity, for their literature and law, their 
industry, liberty, and patriotism ; we want countries to 
work and write and glow for, to live and die for. The 
sphere of humanity has steadily widened, and nations 
alone can now-a-days acquire the membership of that 
commonwealth of our race which extends over Europe 
and America." 

In the small assemblies of the town, the province, 
and the church, our fathers were educated, and pre- 
pared to found and become the rulers of a great govern- 
ment. Slowly through a hundred and fifty years, grew 
up a coldness of feeling and an antagonism of princi- 
ples between the colonies and the mother country. 
The separation, sooner or later, was inevitable ; and 
when at last the struggle came, how thoroughly it was 
founded upon principle, and with what religious for- 
titude is was conducted we all know. I need not re- 
hearse the familiar story of the Revolution. The names 
of its battle-fields are household words. I need not 
speak of those who were slain in the conflict, like the 
beauty of Israel on their high places ; nor of those who 
have since fallen on sleep and been borne to their graves 
amid the tears and honors of a grateful posterity. But 



ORATION. 75 

when the war had successfully terminated, a more diffi- 
cult and delicate task, and one demanding rarer quali- 
ties of intellect and of heart, remained to be performed. 
The country emerged from the war exhausted and de- 
spondent. Its treasury was bankrupt and its credit had 
perished. Wanting resources to defray the ordinary 
expenses of government, they felt the burden of an 
overwhelming debt. Without being able to protect 
themselves by a navigation law, they saw their ports 
crowded with foreign ships. The armed hostility of 
England was only held at bay by the peace which she had 
been compelled to make, while the old Confederacy was 
too weak to command the respect and confidence of the 
people. Congress had no authority to lay imposts or 
other taxes, and the State neglected the requisitions of a 
general government that possessed no coercive power 
but that of war. The Confederacy of 1781 had signally 
failed as a system of national government. The people 
of the whole country were compelled to replace the 
Articles of Confederation by an instrument which should 
give the power of raising revenue and of enforcing the 
obedience of the States. In a word, a national govern- 
ment which should reach the people, in place of the old 
league of states, became a necessity of the times. A 
constitution must be framed and a government organ- 
ized which should bring order and prosperity out of 
this political chaos. This, too, must be accomplished 
by a government founded not on force, but on justice 
and the common consent of the governed. Neither 
" precedent" nor the dogma of a "divine right" could 
lie at the foundation of the organic law ; but the new 
and untried doctrine of natural freedom and political 



76 ORATION. 

equality must determine its. form and character. Law 
was to be made majestic and efficient, not by a standing- 
army, but by the intelligence and moral convictions of 
society. A government that should be able to defend 
the rights and protect the interests of a great people in 
all future time, was to be organized, with delegated 
powers, for a family of sovereign States, which should 
be able to bind them in a perpetual union and yet leave 
them independent of each other, within broad limits. 
Who has the wisdom and courage for such a task"? 

The ability and success with which the Convention 
of 1787 fulfilled the duty devolved upon it by Provi- 
dence, may be seen in the encomiums of statesmen and 
historians, and in the constantly augmenting power and 
prosperity of the nation thus made one, by the Consti- 
tution they framed. "With a sublime trust in man and 
in the God of nations, they committed life, liberty, prop- 
erty, and the development of the material and moral 
resources of a great country, to the protection and en- 
couragement of laws to be made and administered by 
the people themselves. With what reverent awe and 
love do we turn to gaze upon the cluster of great names 
that then ascended the political heavens. Their glory 
shall never be dimmed in the circling years of human 
history. 

But we are now told in these days of rebellion and 
treason, that the venerated Constitution which has en- 
dured the varied and complicated tests of three quarters 
of a century ; which has drawn to it the admiration and 
envy of foreign nations ; which has been a model and a 
standard for the organic law of regenerated nationali- 
ties ; before which the ablest of our dead and living 



ORATION. 



77 



statesmen have bowed with obedient admiration, and 
on the defence of which the peerless and majestic intel- 
lect of our own Webster rested its claim to the lasting 
gratitude and memory of mankind ; this instrument, we 
are told, is simply a bond of copartnership between sov- 
ereign States to continue during pleasure, and liable 
to be rendered null and void at the whim of either 
party to the contract. But where can the record be 
found to justify so treasonable a sentiment] Hamilton, 
one of the great architects of the Constitution, in urg- 
ing reasons for its adoption in place of the Articles of 
Confederation, says in language of singular power and 
purity, " The fabric of American Empire ought to rest 
on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The 
streams of national power ought to flow immediately 
from that pure original fountain of all legitimate au- 
thority." Listen also to the language of Pinckney, the 
distinguished soldier and statesman of South Carolina, 
in her best days. Speaking of the Declaration of In- 
dependence in the legislature of 1788, he says, "This 
admirable manifesto sufficiently refutes the doctrine 
of the individual sovereignty and independence of the 
several States. In that Declaration the several States 
are not even enumerated. The separate independ- 
ence and individual sovereignty of the several States 
were never thought of by the enlightened band of 
patriots who framed this Declaration. The several 
States are not even mentioned by name in any part, 
as if it was intended to impress the maxim on America 
that our freedom and independence arose from our 
union ; and that without it, we never could be free 
or independent. Let us then consider all attempts to 



78 ORATION. 

weaken this Union by maintaining that each State is 
separately and individually independent, as a species of 
political heresy which can never benefit us, but may 
bring us the most serious distress." Even the Articles 
of the old Confederation are styled, in the title, Articles 
of Confederation and perpetual union of the States. The 
preservation of the Union was one of the objects speci- 
fied in the resolution passed by the Confederate Con- 
gress, February 21, 1787, recommending a convention 
of delegates to form a more perfect government; and 
when that convention met " to form," to use the lan- 
guage of the Constitution, "a more perfect union," think 
you it would have provided for anything short of a per- 
petual union? Did its members deceive themselves 
with words without meaning, and leave undone the 
very thing they had met, under a solemn and impera- 
tive sense of duty, to do ? The necessity of establish- 
ing a national government was the hackneyed theme of 
every debate of the constitutional convention. If the 
Constitution tacitly concedes the right of secession, 
then the fathers of the republic placed in the very in- 
strument designed to perpetuate our national existence, 
the seeds of self-destruction. Did Washington and Ham- 
ilton and Madison and the other great men in that re- 
splendent catalogue of immortal names, thus trifle with 
history and deceive posterity ? None but shameless and 
degenerate children would tarnish the fame of their 
great ancestors with the foul imputation. 

The father of his country anticipated, in his farewell 
address, the fearful crime which has come to pass. 
" The unity of government," he says, " which consti- 
tutes you one people is now dear to you. It is justly 



ORATION. 79 

so ; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real in- 
dependence, the support of your tranquillity at home, 
your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, 
of that very liberty which you so highly prize." He 
then warns, with prophetic language, against those 
who would " enfeeble the sacred ties " which bind us 
together. If we have a government in any true sense, 
it is a government of powers delegated by the people 
in their entirety, not by States. The simple but sub- 
lime language of the preamble of the Constitution is, 
" We, the people of the United States, in order to form 
a more perfect union," not we the sovereign States. 
The States were not parties to the contract, and hence 
possess no sovereignty which is able to override that 
which is made the supreme law of the land by the will 
of the people, the primal source of law. State rights 
move upon a subordinate plane. If the doctrine of Mr. 
Calhoun that " each State has an equal right to judge 
for itself, as well of the infraction as of the mode and 
measure of redress" of constitutional rights, had been 
recognized by the fathers, the Union would have 
perished at the outset. Occasions and pretexts must 
have arisen which would inevitably have subverted the 
government in its infancy. Constitutions do not pro- 
vide for their own destruction. Secession is usurpa- 
tion and revolution, and nothing else. The Union, not 
the States, possesses imperial attributes. It makes 
war and peace ; it holds the purse and the sword ; it 
makes treaties and regulates foreign commerce ; it im- 
poses taxes and administers justice. The Union alone 
is represented and recognized at foreign courts. 

Unless the Saxon language is a chain of riddles, the 



80 ORATION. 

Union is a government de facto, and can only be de- 
stroyed by revolution. Concede the right of secession 
and you concede the right to disband the government, 
with all its obligations at home and abroad, with all its 
glorious history and all its fearful responsibility to pos- 
terity. You concede the right to disorganize society, 
and expose it to the fearful evils of unrestrained pas- 
sion. The dogma is a hideous fiction by which political 
thieves and traitors, who are seeking to bear away the 
palladium from the citadel of liberty, would cover and 
dignify their treachery. It is the specious pretext of 
the disciples of Mr. Calhoun, who have been plotting 
for thirty years to overthrow the government. 

Listen to the language of Edward Everett, the patriot 
scholar of New England. Speaking of his public pol- 
icy, he says : "I pursued this course for the sake of 
strengthening the hands of patriotic Union men at the 
South, although I tvas well aware, partly from facts within 
my personal knowledge, that leading Southern politicians 
had for thirty years been resolved to break up the Union, 
as soon as they ceased to control the United States govern- 
ment, and that the slavery question was but a pretext 
for keeping up agitation and rallying the South." 

During all this time they have been secretly mar- 
shalling their forces, demoralizing the army and navy, 
exhausting the treasury, perverting history, calumni- 
ating the North, abusing the Union, and preparing for 
this carnival of treason and blood. They have even 
precipitated the issue, for they well knew that delay 
would destroy their flimsy pretext. The only true ac- 
count which can be given of this war is that the South, 
which has held the government for thirty years, has at 



ORATION. 81 

length been legally and constitutionally outvoted by the 
North. No man worthy of any consideration pretends 
that they have any legitimate reason for rebellion. They 
cannot claim the rare right of revolution, for their per- 
sons and their property too have always been secure un- 
der this most beneficent of human governments. Even 
the distinguished Vice-President of this factitious con - 
federacy, the ablest and manliest traitor of them all, 
acknowledges that the Constitution — the work as well 
of the South as of the North — has never been vio- 
lated. 

And what to-day is our attitude before the civilized 
world? In a time of profound peace and prosperity, 
when the eyes of admiring nations were turned upon 
us with envy, and the arms of struggling patriots in 
Italy and Hungary were stretched to us for succor from 
over the sea, the mad ambition of a few sectional poli- 
ticians has plunged us into a fratricidal war that threat- 
ens our very existence, and strikes at the last best hope 
of a Christian civilization. Even tyrants are astonished 
at the madness and folly which would throw away so 
rich an inheritance. 

Have we mistaken the purposes of the God of na- 
tions in planting the colonies ; in conducting them, like 
Israel of old, through the wilderness ; in raising up to 
them friends ; in leading them, with an outstretched 
arm through wars and perils, and in blessing them at 
length with peace till they have become a great peo- 
ple ? Were the Christian heroism, and the blood 
poured out like water, in the Revolution, all in vain ? 
Were the wisdom and moderation of the men who 
made the Constitution of no permanent use ? The 
11 



82 ORATION. 

prayers of the fathers and their children, were they 
vain oblations ? Is this grand superstructure of insti- 
tutions, whose base rests upon the political equality of 
man, whose pillars rise from eternal justice, and whose 
guardians are learning and religion, to be toppled 
down as easily as the puny structure of a child by the 
breath of passion or the behests of slavery 1 No ! — 
thank God, the " mud sills " are not rotten ; the foun- 
dations stand secure ! 

When the cry of treason and the call for help, sweep- 
ing along the margin of the Atlantic, flying through the 
valley of the Mississippi, and leaping the Alleghanies, 
fell upon the startled yeomanry of the North and West, 
invoking the blessing of heaven upon mother, wife, and 
child, they flew with the swiftness of eagles and the 
strength of lions to the defence of the Capital. As of 
old, the plane was left upon the bench, the plough in 
the furrow, the goods upon the counter, and the brief 
in court, and to-day the men of all professions mingle 
in the camp and share together the hardships and 
dangers of a border warfare ; and, when the hour of 
deadly conflict shall come, they will stand side by side 
and fall together, teaching their children the great les- 
son of liberty which the accidents of trade and the for- 
tunes of peace have will nigh obliterated, that the rich 
and poor stand as peers in the law of nature. 

In the great centres of trade, a small party may pos- 
sibly be found who hesitate and draw back from a 
hearty support of the war from prudential considera- 
tions. But we would ask, is civil liberty and all gran- 
deur of national character to be sacrificed? Is the 
cause of civilization and humanity to be abandoned, 



ORATION. 83 

lest business should be disorganized and capital divert- 
ed from the natural channels of trade ? If the pros- 
perity of the nation must perish, we will acknowl- 
edge no responsibility in its destruction. The govern- 
ment waited the return of reason and the triumph of 
patriotism till the spirit of rebellion had rifled the 
treasury and well nigh emptied the armories of the 
country ; till it had trampled upon the Constitution 
and inaugurated the reign of treason. 

The war has been forced upon us wickedly and 
without cause, and there is no alternative but to pros- 
ecute it without compromise or wavering till the trai- 
tors lay down their arms and acknowledge the rightful 
authority of the government. 

The South may make rules to regulate its slaveocracy, 
and we will not interfere ; but it shall never dictate 
laws and principles of action to twenty millions of free- 
men. If the manufactures, the commerce, and the ag- 
riculture of the land are annihilated in the struggle, we 
shall leave to our posterity the means of future wealth, 
the legacy of a noble ancestry, and a free government. 
By the help of God they shall not be the children of 
slaves. If the flower of this generation must fall upon 
the field of strife and lie down to rest in a bloody 
shroud, the ashes of their sires will bid them welcome 
to their honored graves and their great inheritance of 
fame. They will link their names with those who fell 
at Concord and at Yorktown, and their memory will be 
as imperishable as the eternal hills that gird our gran- 
ite home. 

You and I have read, with throbbing hearts and 
tearful eyes, of the thrilling events of other days, and 



84 ORATION. 

have regretted that the lines had not fallen to ns in 
those great epochs of history. Uo we realize that our 
half-breathed prayer has been answered in a way we 
anticipated not ? Do we realize that each day of the 
passing year, on the very soil we tread, is making his- 
tory more grand and significant than was ever recorded 
by the hand of Thucidydes or Prescott % 

Our incredulity has been so strengthened by the 
false cry of danger from the party press in each politi- 
cal canvass which has swept the country, that we are 
slow to recognize the magnitude of the crisis which at 
last has fallen upon us. Two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand of our brothers have gone forth from their com- 
fortable homes, and are to-day marching and counter- 
marching beneath a burning sun. The hazards and 
hardships of war weigh heavily upon them ; and while 
they stand on the slippery edge of battle their hearts 
are far away with the loved ones on the northern hills 
and western plains. They need our sympathy and our 
cordial support. Let us not question our convenience, 
but our ability in furnishing every comfort which can 
alleviate the horrors of war to those brave youth and 
noble men, who are fighting for the maintenance of 
good government and national freedom ; fighting to 
perpetuate the glory and the protection which our 
fathers fought to establish. 

The novelty of danger has passed by, and there is a 
momentary lull in the enthusiasm which for a time lifted 
the whole people above the prejudices of party and the 
lust of gain, and presented to the world the sublime 
and inspiring spectacle of a great nation pausing in its 
career of power and prosperity to reassert an abstract 



ORATION. 85 

principle lying at the foundation of modern States. 
Here and there in this temporary lull, a miscreant soul, 
covering its inherent meanness with the shallow pre- 
text of moderation, cries peace, and with traitorous 
intent seeks to weaken the arm upon which Providence 
has devolved the duty of defending our homes and 
our liberties. They complain of the violation of the 
Constitution and the usurpation of power by the gov- 
ernment, forgetting that, if the accusation were true, 

" Salus populi est lex suprema." 

Prudence may dictate that these home-bred sympathizers 
with treason should be endured for a time. 

"Durum! sed levius fitpatientia, 
Quidquid corrigere est nefas." 

What do these gentlemen wish ? Would they have 
the descendants of the Puritans sell their birthright for 
a mess of pottage 1 Would they have our institutions 
and principles exposed for sale at the brokers' board, 
and quoted on exchange ? Do they desire us to stand 
with our arms folded till the call of the slave-roll is 
heard on Bunker Hill, and our children are seen to 
crawl, poverty-stricken and hopeless, on the battle-fields 
where sleep the ashes of our sainted dead X But let us 
not trouble ourselves with these ephemeral insects. 
They Avill perish with their brief hour. 

The spirit of the nation will soon move with a deeper 
and more irresistible flow, sweeping over the plains, 
rising above the hills, and pouring through the gorges 
of the mountains, bearing thousands more of our brave 
men to the field of strife. 

The great inheritance of liberties, baptized with the 



86 ORATION. 

blood of our lathers, and still guarded — may we not 
believe — by their saintly presence, can never be given 
to traitors. Wherever, throughout the wide domain 
of the Republic, men shall gather to this national jubi- 
lee to awaken fond reminiscences and to pay a grate- 
ful tribute to their sires, a more fervent spirit of patriot- 
ism will be enkindled, and the solemn vow of loyalty 
to the Union will be renewed. The righteous wrath 
of outraged freemen will deepen month by month, so 
long as the proud old banner that waved on the battle- 
fields of the Revolution, that drooped over the graves 
of our fathers, and beneath whose ample folds their 
children have found peace and prosperity, shall be torn 
and insulted by traitors. 

This last struggle of liberty may yet prove the grand- 
est in the issue. It will doubtless develop in its pro- 
gress, new and difficult problems to be solved by a pru- 
dent application of the settled principles of political 
science. They should be decided calmly and wisely, 
but constantly in the interests of humanity, good gov- 
ernment, and a Christian civilization. 

A little while, and the selfishness of trade and the 
meanness of party will be consumed ; a little longer, 
and the foul plague in the veins of the government will 
be purged away forever ; and when the nation rises up 
with a new and nobler life, we shall learn that " man's 
extremity was God's opportunity." When the end of 
this war shall come, be it soon or late, it will be found 
worth the sacrifices we have made — such as will tend 
to promote human freedom and the civilization of the 
world. 

" Esta perpetua" may still stand upon the Constitu- 



ORATION. • 87 

tion, for soon the earth will tremble with a heavier 
tramp of armies, sent forth from our peaceful homes 
with the prayers of mothers and the benediction of 
fathers. 

" The angel of God's blessing 
Encamps with Freedom on the field of fight ; 
Still to her banner, day by day are pressing, 
Unlooked-for allies, striking for the right ; 
Courage, then, Northern hearts — Be firm, be true ! " 



CENTENNIAL AND PATRIOTIC CELEBRATION. 



July 4th, 1861, the town of Lebanon was one hundred years old. 
Invitations had been sent to those who had gone from the town to return 
and unite with the people of the town, in celebrating the day. A large 
number, considering the state of the country, accepted the invitation, 
and came once more to the place of their birth, renewing old acquaint- 
ances and reviving many pleasant memories of the past. 

If we had been permitted to make our selection from all the fair days 
of the calendar, we could scarcely have suited ourselves better. The 
day was cloudless ; abundant rains had insured us against dust. Per- 
haps we should have inserted a few whiffs from the North Pole to cool 
the air a little ; but then we remembered that the heat was good for 
corn, and it served to remind us of the endurances of our soldiers at 
the South, and stir our sympathy for them. 

The day was ushered in by a salute of thirteen guns, fired by a squad 
of nine cadets from Norwich University, under the command of Capt. 
A. B. Hutchinson. 

These cadets did good service during the day, displayed high skill as 
artillerists, and won respect by their gentlemanly conduct. 

The parade of the Horribles, which we have noticed elsewhere, was a 
pleasant feature of the day. 

The procession was formed at half-past nine, under the direction of 
Capt. E. A. Howe, Chief Marshal, and his Assistants, Messrs. Shaw, 
Noyes, and Randlett. Headed by the Lebanon Cornet Band, and es- 
corted by the Mascoma Engine Company, No. 2, and the Franklin Lodge 
of Masons, they marched around the Common to the stand for 
speaking. 

12 



90 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

EXERCISES ON THE STAND. 

<i. II. LATHROP, ESQ., PRESIDENT OF THE DAY. 

The exercises were opened by a fervent prayer by Rev. George Storrs, 
from New York, a native of the town, and a descendant of one of the 
early settlers. 2. Singing by a choir under the direction of Mr. J. M. 
Perkins, who, during the day, furnished excellent music. 3. Historical 
Address by Rev. D. H. Allen, I) D., of Lane Seminary, Ohio, a native 
of the town. L A Poem by Rev. C. H. Fay, of Providence, R. I., 
also a native of the town. f>. Reading the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence by Hon. A. H. Cragin. 6. Oration by Prof. J. W. Patterson, 
of Dartmouth College. 

At the close of the exercises on the stand, the procession reformed 
and marched to the tent prepared for the collation. When the head of 
the column reached the place, a slight contre temps occurred. The peo- 
ple were ready, but the dinner was not. Time, however, soon remedied 
this. Nearly four hundred and fifty took their seats at the tables. 
Rev. Dr. Lord implored the Divine blessing. Of this part we have 
only to say, that the good old dietetic rule was observed " to leave off 
hungry." 

TOASTS AND SPEECHES. 

Rev. G. W. Bailey acted as Toast Master. 

1. " Our Centennial Birthday — with all its pleasant and interesting 
associations." 

2. "The Fourth of July, 1761 — Lebanon a houseless wilderness; 
1776 — her noble sons rush to Lexington and Bunker Hill to defend 
her rights; 1861 — the wilderness has budded and blossomed." 

The third toast was introduced by reading a letter from Barrett Pot- 
ter, Esq., a son of the first minister of the town, Rev. Isaiah Potter. 
Mr. Potter is now in his 85th year. He gave at the close of his letter 
the following toast : — 

3. "The Early Settlers of Lebanon — Silas Waterman, William 
Dana, Charles Hill, William Downer, Levi Hyde, and Nathaniel Por- 
ter, the pioneers and first settlers in the town of Lebanon, who, with 
subsequent settlers in 1768, gathered and established the first church 
therein, and 1772 settled Rev. Isaiah Potter, the first ordained minister 
in said town." 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 91 

Responded to by Rev. George Storrs, who said: " We have come to 
our native town once more, many of us from a distance. We find great 
changes. We find an improved country, forests are cleared away, new 
homes have sprung up. We find new modes of travel, the lightning-like 
speed of the railroads. It was not so with our fathers ; they came by 
forest paths, upon ox-sleds, by boats on the river, where civilized foot 
had never before trod. They were superior men. I delight to recall 
their memory. Let the memory of our fathers be blessed ; let it dwell 
in our minds. They came not only to plant colonies, not only to better 
their fortunes, but to plant temperance and religion and establish 
churches, with their blessed influences. We should be deeply grateful 
to them. We should be deeply grateful to the first minister of the 
town, for his labors and influence. I shall never forget a single sen- 
tence that fell from his lips. All is held fast in my memory. When 
on one occasion he used the words ' Ephraim, how shall I give thee 
up,' they seemed to come to me and say, ' George, how shall I give 
thee up ! ' They were blessed and fruitful words in me. Honor and 
success followed him. Let his mantle fall upon his successors." 

4. " The Sons of Lebanon, at home and abroad." Responded to by 
Rev. C. H. Fay, who said : — 

" I am to speak of the sons absent and present. It is not a poetical 
theme. You will not expect me to speak in rhyme. If it had been the 
daughters of Lebanon, I could not have avoided rhyme, so inspiring is 
' such a subject. I have but slight knowledge of the absent sons. I 
have met them occasionally. They all seem to be doing well, to bring 
credit to the place that gave them birth. You have a good specimen of 
them in the Orator of the day. Of those at home, what shall I say ? 
The scene before me reminds me of the progress we have made in one 
cardinal virtue — Temperance. 0, those old Fourths of July ! With 
their wine, and spirits ; and women banished from the tables, because 
they were not fit places and scenes for them. But now we find wine 
banished, and women admitted. They are far more inspiring than 
wine. 

" Let me tell you a story, related to me by one of the fathers, show- 
ing the advance temperance has made in the town, and how they man- 
aged in the old times. It was the custom for a neighborhood to select 
one of their number to take their produce to market, — their butter, 
cheese, beef, pork, &c. He went ' below ' (that is, to Boston,) for the 



92 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

rest. If successful, he was gone about a fortnight. He was always 
commissioned to bring back a cask of rum or brandy. On one occasion 
a number of neighbors were assembled in an orchard. It was in the 
Jefferson campaign — they were talking politics. Of course the word 
federalist occurred frequently. One said to another, when he had at- 
tempted to use the word, ' What do you say fetherlist for, — why don't 
you say feth — fetherlist?' ' 0, you can't say it yourself. I can say 
fetherlist as well as you.' Others tried the word with about the same 
success. After testing themselves by this novel shibboleth, they con- 
cluded that they were not quite sober. And now I trust that you, their 
sons, will always be able to say federalist, — that none of you will ever 
be in a condition to say fetheralist. 

" Of the sons at home, I conceive that they are much like the man's 
nigh ox. He had a yoke to sell. He praised the off one highly, and 
at great length. Finally the purchaser said, ' Why don't you say some- 
thing of the nigh ox ? ' ' 0, he can speak for himself.' " 

5. " To those who, not having the good fortune to be born in town, 
have endeavored to retrieve their fortunes by taking a wife who was." 
Responded to by Eev. Dr. Swain, of Providence, R. I., who said : — 

"I am one of the unfortunates not born in Lebanon. I plead guilty 
of the misfortune, to the crime, if it was a crime, of not having the wis- 
dom to be born here. But with my folly I have mingled wisdom, for I 
have taken a wife that ' was.' The ' was ' is emphatic, ' who was born 
here.' But I have some pleas to offer in extenuation of my misfortune, 
of my crime, if it was a crime. The privileges of a son-in-law are often 
found to be greater than those of a son. My misfortune might have 
been greater, for if I did not have the good fortune to be born in Leb- 
anon, I have ' retrieved my fortune by taking a wife who was.' I might 
have had the double misfortune of not being born here, or finding ' a 
wife who was.' So I have mingled good with evil, wisdom with folly. 
In these days of secession, let me say : The daughters of Lebanon, ' the 
cedars of Lebanon,' let not wife, nor mother, nor daughter of them all, 
ever be found a se — cedar ! Let them love and defend our institutions 
to the last generation. May their posterity equal and surpass their 
ancestry." 

6. " The Clergymen of Lebanon." Responded to by Rev. Mr. Case, 
of West Lebanon, who said : — 

" This at least merits large notice. The subject is an extensive one, 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. ( J'S 

for the clergymen were many ; it is at least a lofty subject, for the first 
three ministers of the town taken together measured some inches over 
eighteen feet. They were high priests. I mention it as a significant 
fact, that the clergymen of Lebanon were ever devoted to temperance. 
Considering the customs of former times, it is wonderful that no more 
ministers fell into intemperance. The records of another town show 
that in a population of six hundred and forty, forty barrels of rum 
were used in a year, besides other liquors. Every man in old times 
would think himself wanting in hospitality, if he did not place a bottle 
before the minister when he called. Considering their temptations, they 
escaped wonderfully. Of the ministers of Lebanon, it may be said of 
them, that they have ever been loyal. The first of them all set a good 
example to the rest. For when the country was struggling for inde- 
pendence, he went out to encourage and comfort her troops as a chap- 
lain. He was a strong man. A little story will show this. Passing 
through the camp one day, he saw two men trying to lift a cannon. 
Taking hold of it alone, he easily lifted it to its place. One of the 
men, in his astonishment, let slip an oath, when the other silenced him 
by telling him that he was a chaplain, when he hastened after him and 
begged pardon for his profanity. 

" It is a significant fact, that in the first records of the town we trace 
their anxiety for a ministry among them. It shows the love of our 
fathers for these institutions which have so much to do with our pros- 
perity. Lebanon ranks high in the number and quality of the ministers 
she has raised up. About thirty have gone forth from her. Among 
them have been doctors of divinity, who have made their mark in the 
world. Others have found and filled worthy places in colleges and the- 
ological seminaries. One is buried in a foreign land, who went forth as 
a missionary to the heathen. Let the next one hundred years equal 
the past." 

7. " The Lawyers of Lebanon." 

Lebanon has not been very fruitful in this class, and none were found 
to respond. 

8. "Dr. Phineas Parkhurst, and the Physicians of Lebanon." Re- 
sponded to by Dr Dixi Crosby, who said: — ^ A $7 

" Dr. Parkhurst was born in Plainfield, Conn. Early in life he re- 
moved to Royalton. Like other young men he went a courting, and 
stayed on one occasion to breakfast. During the meal he saw Indians 



94 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

approaching. He immediately went out and caught the Narragausett 
mare, and helping his lady-love and her mother to mount, got up behind 
them, and set out for Connecticut River. The Indians followed and 
fired upon them, wounding Parkhurst, the ball passing through from 
behind and lodging in the skin before. He seized it in his fingers and 
held it till he arrived in West Lebanon, when it was extracted by Dr. 
Hall. This incident first turned the thoughts of Parkhurst to the 
practice of medicine. He became an apprentice of Dr. Hall, for so 
they termed students in those days. In due time he began to practice, 
his first case being in a department in which he was afterwards very 
successful — obstetrics. More than three thousand received their in- 
troduction into the world by him. In due time he married — for money 
it is supposed — the portion of his wife consisting of one cow, three 
cups, and three knives. He first lived in West Lebanon,- and knew what 
it was to be poor — often with but two shirts, and one white cravat, to 
which he was very partial, which was washed over night. But success 
and prosperity came in due season. 

"Asa physician, Dr. Parkhurst was not learned, but skilful by expe- 
rience. After listening on one occasion to the learned talk of some of 
his brethren, he said : ' I am much gratified with all I have heard ; I 
can't talk, but, by Judas, I can practice with the best of you ! ' As a 
physician, he was skilful, prompt, self-denying, always ready at call, 
night or day, in cold or heat. He was noted for his unbounded hospi- 
tality ; the string was ever hanging out at his door. He was the father 
of a large family — two sons and nine daughters. He exemplified the 
great precept of religion, beneficence towards his fellow-men. Those 
who have succeeded him have been worthy and skilful members of his 
profession." 

9. " Dartmouth College became the Alma Mater of fifty- four sons 
of Lebanon." Responded to by President Lord, of Dartmouth College, 
who said : — 

" A respectable clergyman of Hanover was asked to give a short ex- 
tempore address. He replied that it was impossible ; ' I must write 
everything. Why, if I should find that I had forgotten to write amen 
at the close of my sermon, I should faint away.' I am very much like 
him. Absurd and ridiculous as it may appear (pulling out his manu- 
script) , I must resort to my notes. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 95 

" Mr. President, I acknowledge the great courtesy which gives me 
this occasion to commemorate a remarkable fact in the history of Leba- 
non, viz : That there have been raised up fifty-four sturdy men, each of 
whom was born of two mothers. I am still more glad to say that these 
two prolific mothers are yet in their bloom, and their offspring is likely 
to be indefinitely increased, till I know not but they will be sufficient to 
found a nation ; particularly as these remarkable children are all sons 
who are very apt to marry in the family. At least the sisters find 
Swains without going abroad to visit. 

" But, Mr. President, I better like your courtesy, because it proves 
that Lebanon is not disposed to appropriate all the honor of sending out 
into the world such a noble company of educated men. The natural 
mother divides credit with the foster mother This is well, and speaks 
well — so let it be. What Lebanon has brought forth Dartmouth has 
nourished, to become an ornament to both and a blessing to the world. 

" Mr. President, I cannot speak from book, but I think that your 
good town of Lebanon must have produced a larger number of educated 
men than any other town of our educating State. I will not even ex- 
cept the larger commercial, political, and manufacturing towns. But, 
however, it must have exceeded other towns of the same age and popu- 
lation. She deserves to bear the banner, and I trust the banner will be 
flung here to the breeze, at your next Centennial, July 4th, 1961 — in 
a time of peace and glory, inscribed to learning, wisdom, and virtue — 
the guide and safety of the State. 

" Sir, I am aware that every man who happens to be born in Leba- 
non and educated at Dartmouth does not thereby necessarily gain for 
himself, his town, or college, a true honor. 

" I cannot deem that Lebanon or Dartmouth, or any other town or 
college would choose, in all cases, to recognize the parental relation. I 
remember what happened at a time, when I was a boy. A young man 
from a neighboring town was sent to Harvard. No matter what his 
name — let us call him Simplon He proved to be what students fre- 
quently make a subject of their good-natured, but sometimes extrava- 
gant sport. His father's house was on the line of Kittery and York, 
and that line bisected it. It was a problem at Coll., in which end of the 
house Simplon was born, and hence some lively classmate gave out the 
following epigram : — 



96 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

" ' Kittery and York, 't is said, 
For Simplon's birth contest; 
The strife is sharp, and Kittery wins. 
But York comes off the best.' 

" Now it is not my opinion that Lebanon or Dartmouth has ever given 
occasion for quite such pleasantry as this. Or, if it were so, I should 
not choose to speak of it in such a company. I have to say what is to 
better purpose, viz : That your list of graduates is one of which any 
town or college may be proud. It were impossible to speak of them now 
in detail. But they would bear the criticism of the world ; from those 
old schoolmen, dead, the Woods and Harrises, who have left a shining 
mark in the history of their times, down to the mediaeval period of her 
Young, and the living men so well represented by the honored and be- 
loved Orator of to-day. Had Lebanon and Dartmouth done no more 
than to send out such a company, that alone would make them worthy 
of record among the true benefactors of mankind. 

" Mr. President, we joyfully this day cement the fellowship and 
friendship of Lebanon and Dartmouth. I speak for Dartmouth. Send 
us still your young men, and we will nourish them. That kind of pat- 
ronage is not all we want, but it tells most upon the world. It is bet- 
ter even than wild lands — though possibly not better than would be 
the confidence and rational patronage of the State. But let what will 
betide, Dartmouth will be for the State, and the whole of it ; not for 
sect or party, but mankind." 

10. " The Farmers and Mechanics of Lebanon — none better." Be- 
sponded to, in behalf of the farmers, by Daniel Bichardson, Esq., 
who said : "Now you will see the difference between knowledge and 
ignorance — alluding to the learned gentlemen who preceded him. I 
have been a farmer all my life, and have not had the advantages of ed- 
ucation. I cannot make a speech. I may say in behalf of the farm- 
ers, that we are under great obligations to them. They have cleared 
away the forests, subdued the wild soil, and brought it into the service 
of man — made room for these many pleasant homes. It is the ambi- 
tion of farmers to raise the largest ox, the best horse, the fattest hog, 
or largest crop. In old times they took pride in one other thing — in 
raising up the largest and best families. Let their posterity imitate 
them." 

For the mechanics, Mr. L. F. Brooks — one of them — briefly re- 
sponded with a handsome tribute to their skill. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



97 



11. "The President of the United States" In response to this 
toast, Hon. A. H. Cragin spoke as follows : — 

. " The President of the United States is the legal and constitutional 
head of the government. He is the agent of the people— the execu- 
tive of the Constitution and laws, and, as such, is entitled to respect. 
The present Chief Magistrate was elected by a constitutional vote, in 
due form of law, and is therefore as justly entitled to administer the 
government as ever was Washington or Jackson. He has his commis- 
sion from the same authority, and is alike responsible. He is clothed 
with all the powers conferred by the Constitution, and is under the most 
solemn oath to preserve, protect, and defend that Constitution. 

" It is manifestly the duty of those whose agent he is, at all times to 
aid the President in the discharge of his proper duties, and to strength- 
en and uphold his hands in support of the government which he is called 
upon to administer. 

" The present occupant of the Presidential chair entered upon the dis- 
charge of his duties under the most extraordinary and trying circum- 
stances. Dissatisfied with the result of the late Presidential election, a 
portion of the people in the Southern States, regardless of their consti- 
tutional obligations, defied the will of the majority, and were conspiring 
to destroy the government. They had boldly raised the flag of rebel- 
lion and resistance. Men were in arms against the government that 
had so long afforded them protection. Treason was doing its work. 
Forts had been captured, arsenals had been plundered of arms and mu- 
nitions of war ; national ships had been seized and employed by the in- 
surgents ; treasuries and mints with vast sums of money had been em- 
bezzled and appropriated for the support of rebellion ; the national flag 
had been insulted, and the Union pronounced a curse. 

" Such was the state of things, and worse than this, when Abraham 
Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United States. 

" He appealed to the reason and patriotism of the misguided people, 
and, by the memories of the past, the hopes of the future, and the 
graves of the patriotic dead, called upon all true citizens to rally in sup- 
port of the Union and the laws of the land. His patriotic and paternal 
appeal was derided by the traitors. The government paused, while the 
work of destroying the Union went on. The gallant little band in 
Fort Sumter, hemmed in by a wall of iron batteries, were on the point 
of starvation. The government, at the last moment, resolved to supply 



98 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

the fort with provisions. When this purpose became known, ten thou- 
sand rebels opened a deadly fire upon less than one hundred starving 
defenders of the Union. The fort surrendered, but instantly the coun- 
try was aroused. The war for the Union began. The President called 
for 75,000 volunteers, and forthwith they were ready. More were 
called for, and to-day 300,000 men are under arms for the defence of 
the Union. 

" The spectacle of the uprising of the people is truly magnificent. The 
North is nearly a unit in their patriotic efforts to support the President 
in his determination to preserve the Union. Party lines are obliterated, 
and all classes vie with each other in their zeal to maintain the govern- 
ment. There is but one voice heard, and that is, that the Union 
' must and shall be preserved ! ' 

" This government was formed after great sacrifice, and at a very 
great cost. We have been accustomed to applaud its founders, as wise 
and patriotic men, and to cherish the inheritance which they left us, as 
of priceless value. It has already performed a great mission, but its 
work is only begun. To the union of these States the nation owes its 
unprecedented increase in population, its surprising development of ma- 
terial resources, its rapid augmentation of wealth, its happiness at home, 
and its honor abroad. The light of our example has illumined the 
whole earth, and to-day the hopes of the world, for the preservation of 
liberty and free government centre in the preservation of this Union. 
God helping us, we will preserve it. 

" If this Union perish now, it will be the most stupendous failure 
that the world ever saw ; and it must be inferred that our national sins 
have become so great in the sight of Heaven, that God can no longer 
withhold his vengeance. 

"Trusting that the same wise Providence which sanctioned the work 
of our fathers in the Revolution, has much to accomplish for his own 
glory, and the benefit of mankind through the instrumentality of this 
government, I believe the Union will be preserved. 

"lam inclined to believe that the purposes of God are visible in this 
causeless rebellion. There is no accounting for it from the usual mo- 
tives for human actions. ' Whom the gods destroy they first make 
mad,' is a familiar adage. I accept the fact as the manifest work of 
Providence, and fully believe it portends no ultimate evil to our country. 
or the inalienable rights of man." 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 99 

12. "The Stars and Stripes. They have floated over our cradles 
— let it. be our prayer and our endeavor that they shall float over our 
graves." 

Song by Messrs. Ingalls and Alden, Mrs. Davis and Miss Porter, — 
" Star Spangled Banner." 

13. " The Staple Products of New England : 

•' Land — hard to till, and piled with granite gray, 
Men — hard to kill, harder to drive away." 

VOLUNTEER TOASTS. 

By Kobert Kimball, Esq. " The Memory of Stephen A. Douglas. 

" Brief and eventful was his bold career, 
An iron will, a soul devoid of fear ; 
Wrong — he, perchance, has been in time now past ; 
Right — minds like his will surely prove at last." 

" Lebanon and Hartford chartered the same day ; settled by liberty- 
loving pioneers from the same town in Connecticut, situated side by 
side in the same charming valley ; may their united devotion to the 
great interests of religion and constitutional freedom be as constant as 
the flow of the noble river which beautifies their banks " Responded to 
by D. B. Dudley, of Hartford, Vt. 

Letters were received from many gentlemen, natives of the town, ex- 
pressing their interest in the celebration, and regretting their inability 
to share in the occasion. From Rev. E. L. Magoon, of Albany ; from 
Maj. Henry L. Kendrick, of West Point, offering the following senti- 
ment : " My Native Town. Her children rise up to do her honor and 
reverence." From John Potter, Esq., of Augusta, Me., with the senti- 
ment : ' ' The Land where our venerated Forefathers sleep, and the cher- 
ished Birthplace of their Descendants. Let liberty and union be for- 
ever inscribed upon her annals, and preserved as a precious inheritance 
to the latest generation, by her sons." From Mr. J. A. Durkee, Esq., of 
New York : " The Star-Spangled Banner and the next Centennial An- 
niversary. May the rays of the sun which rises on the next centennial 
anniversary, shine upon that banner with its stripes unsullied and stars 
undimmed ; waving over a happy people, bound by no chain but the 
silken cord of brotherly affection, and no bond but peace, no creed but 
love to God and good-will to men." 



]()() CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Also letters from H. 11. Stevens, Esq., and Win. 1 >. Ticknor, of Bos- 
ton, and Capt. James Benton, of the U. S. Army. At a late hour the 
company broke up, after singing Old Hundred. 

COMMITTEE OK ARRANGEMENTS. 

E. P. LISCOMB, 

C. C. BENTON, 

JOHN CLOUGH. 

RUFUS CASE, 

SAMUEL WOOD, 2d. 

WILLIAM S. ELA, ^| 

SOLON A. PECK. > Selectmen. 

OLIVER L. STEARNS, J 

CHARLES A. DOWNS, \ 

GEORGE W. BAILEY, ( i5ecretarws - 



T II E 



Centennial (Keleliratifln 



LEBANON, N. H.', 



JULY FOUliTH 1861. 



BOSTON: 
J. E. FARWELL & COMPANY. PRINTERS TO THE CITY 

No. 32 G " K c; RE SS S r n r. i; x . 

18 6 2. 



£S> ^ < "J J> 






> ^ 

> 5 



> - 
> > "> 

i >J>. T> 



> > > > 

> > > > 

. > ->_ > > 
, > : > > :> 

>■> > > .•> 

> > > > 

> , > > r> 

> > ■ ;> > :^> 

> 5 > ^ > 

> . > 1 > 



> > ...» 

> >> , r> 

-> » > , i - 

» » > .■> 

-* X> > ,^> 



^ > >^ 



<> > >7> 
> Z> » 



5 >> | ^ 

J» :>> > :3» 






^> > > ?> ~TT5 j 

> > I> SS 

_. ~> ~> 2> 3 3> 



? ;j?) ^ ^ 3 - 


















-** ^ ^ ^r ^= 

5 O ^ A ,< Sf^B 



-> > 5> 
^> > >> 






If? 
-> ^>^» ^ >-^» - 



P5> ^> 



5 _> > 

> y > 

. > 3 > , 

> > 2> >» » 



> > 3> 

^> > >> 
z> 7> :» 






? > 









? 73»» r» S> ^> 
3S 'S>33 



> » > 

» > 



#t 



KS 5 



^> ^ 



^ ^ 












3^ |>J>S > s>7^ ^' 






S> » < > 

)? ^> '•' ^.> -> O » 3 > 

3» > :>_^> J > .> » > ^ ? 

- :> > >• >> > > ' --» 
> >> >■ > 

^3Z> 23 > ? 

> » "> » >• ^> 

o ZJ* r>~> z> >> >•■ > 
^»> ^> > > ~> i> ^> > 

^ 7> >> ^t> i > >~> » > 
>3 X> >^ _, •» , > O > > 

■k „ . »■>.>>>>> 

. ^> >> ©; -> ')!> > ' " 

>Z» » > ■ > ■•> > > 



) > > 






>> > 

■ 
> 









_> > >> 



7> > 

> > ; ;> 

> « a 



>->T> ^> > >> ^j 
► > > :> > 



> • -. . » > 

> > :> • > > 

>•> > CD 

S > ■""■-> • >> 



> > » 

>>> >t> 
> >5> 



>>DD> 



>^>y> 



2y ? >X> 

> > i> >- 






« 






Z» ^> ^> 



so ^ 

>^> > 






> > 












> >y> 

► > > » ~^z 






^^> 



7^ ^> 



>J> 


O 2> 


"■ rs 


k 


>c> 


o > 

EZ> > 




> 




5> > 


■ i ~~ 


> - 


^>> 


S» >5 


',> ^ 


3 ' 


» > 


* ^> 


> » 


2> >. 


» ^ 




^> ^fc. 


> ^> 



-» . > :> >> i 



o~5 

:»- i 






-J > 






::> > d 



■ 
>3 >> 



3$ 






» ^* 



